Twosome, threesome

It seems like there will be soon some serious beer action in Africa’s most populous country, where Guinness and Heineken are calling the shots - so far. Guinness, through its 53% stake in Guinness Nigeria, and Heineken, which owns 40% of Nigerian Breweries, control the market. South African Breweries, which sold 25.1 million hl of beer in South Africa, still has no brewing plant in Nigeria but is already exporting beer there from South Africa.
Nigeria was once considered Africa’s most interesting beer market. In the late 1970s, consumption was 12 million hl when the economy prospered thanks to the high oil revenues. In sync with falling oil prices, consumption dropped below 4 million hl in the 1980s. In addition, Heineken plans to buy Con-solidated Breweries Ltd..

On top of that, falling foreign exchange earnings forced the government to ban the import of several agricultural commodities - malted barley among them.
After years of steady decline, beer consumption has picked up slightly since the end of 1998, when the government decided to abolish a 40% excise duty. Unfortunately, the re-introduction of the 40% excise duty earlier this year which forced brewers to raise prices by 20% - 25%, may dampen prospects of continuously rising sales which stood at about 5 million hl in 1999.
Guinness which claims to have a 30% market share, plans to invest US$20 million over the next two years to expand facilities in both Lagos and Benin City, the latter located in the state of Bendel.
Heineken, whose subsidiary Nigerian Breweries is the country’s leading brewer, is also spending a two-digit million dollar figure to upgrade equipment and bolster marketing., an unlisted company, in preparation for the envisaged competition from South African Breweries.