Nigeria’s giant brewer, Nigeria Breweries Plc has announced that it paid a whooping N16 billion as tax to the Federal Government for the financial year 2015 and also created 4,000 direct jobs despite tough operating environment.
The brewer also disclosed that the beer industry in the country grew by one percent in 2015, while beer consumption per person stood at 11 liters.
Managing Director/CEO,Nicolaas Vervelde, disclosed this during the company’s Pre-AGM Media briefing held in Lagos last weekend.
He said; “ Employment-wise, the company has 4,000 Nigerians are on its payrolls across its 11 beer plants and two malt production plants across the country while 280,000 people have been indirectly employed by its transporters, distributors and other ancillary businesses.”
Vervelde said that the slow growth in the economy in terms of lower oil prices, fall in the value of the Naira, scarcity of foreign exchange , low purchasing power of consumers are some of the economic indices that affected the industry like other businesses in the country.
According to him, the beer industry in Nigeria has been undergoing slow growth for four consecutive years, adding that the sector grew by 1 percent last year compared to 9-10 percent recorded in the years before 2010.
