By Chinwendu Obienyi
Nigerian Breweries Plc, says it has attained about 56 per cent in local sourcing of raw materials and has injected $114 million in capital investments and expansion projects in its bid to build a resilient economy.
This is coming as the brewing company disclosed that about N98 billion has been invested in cultivating locally sourced materials as well as sorghum and cassava value chain through commercial purchase and smallholder farming in the last 5 years.
The company’s Corporate Affairs Director, Sade Morgan, disclosed this on Tuesday during a media parley in commemoration of the NB Plc 75th Anniversary in Lagos. Morgan noted that despite the pandemic in 2020, the brewing company kept to its strategy of delivering satisfaction and growth in 2021, adding that the Nigerian economy has remained resilient and still remains an exceptional market with the right fundamentals for growth.
She noted that the company had embarked on local sourcing of raw materials while revealing that its target is not yet 100 per cent.
“We have done about 56 per cent in local material sourcing but our packaging material is at 100 per cent but the challenge with the raw material is the local availability of the ingredients that goes into making most of our products.
So that is an area where we will continue to pioneer as we did with sorghum backward integration and investing in being able to realize in Nigeria the products needed essentially. But for now, we want to be able to satisfy our consumers and give them the same quality of beer that they can get anywhere in the world as when you drink a Heineken in Nigeria, it is the same as the one in Amsterdam and United Kingdom. We have to be able to ensure that the ingredients are consistent and also of quality and that is where we are on raw material and of course we will continue to improve”, Morgan said.
According to her, “NB Plc in its bid to build a resilient economy through sustainable capital investments have injected about $114 million in capital investments and expansion projects scheduled for 2021/2022 in Ama (Enugu) brewery and has prioritized import substitution and accretion for foreign reserve with N78 billion in investing and cultivating locally sourced materials in the last 5 years and N20 billion in sorghum value in 2021 through commercial purchase and smallholder farming.”