It takes some daring to put big money behind a new brewery venture in Nigeria if you happen to be a latecomer to the market like SABMiller. The market is basically a cushy duopoly by Heineken and Diageo, both of whom have been active in Nigeria for decades. Heineken entered in 1946, Guinness in 1962. The two heavyweights have the market cornered: Heineken’s market share is about 70 percent, while Diageo’s is 25 percent.

South Africa is crafting a new law to restrict alcohol advertising, raise the minimum drinking age to 21 from 18 and clamp down on drink driving, media reported in August 2012.The bill would also propose warning labels on alcohol containers, raising taxes and stricter licensing laws for alcohol outlets.

Why is Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) buying a 15.5 percent stake in the Sedibeng brewery in South Africa, which is currently owned by Heineken (75 percent) and Diageo (25 percent)? The decision was made public by NBL’s majority shareholder Ohlthaver and List Group of Companies (O&L) in May 2012, without giving details of the purchasing price.

Is Nigeria really the promised land that international brewers Heineken, Diageo and SABMiller make it out to be? Or is the country a house that has fallen - whose roof may still be intact but shows many gaping holes, as risk consultancy Menas Associates, London, argues in a recent report?

It was to be expected that Heineken would not be content with owning two breweries in Africa’s second most populous country behind Nigeria. Early last year Heineken entered the Ethiopian beer market when the Dutch brewer acquired the Bedele and Harar breweries — both of which were publicly owned — for USD 78.1 million and USD 85.2 million, respectively.

SABMiller and EABL will not exactly be trembling in their shoes now that Heineken has opened a regional headquarter in Kenya's capital, as local media reported in March 2012. But it shows that global brewers are taking the East African market serious.

Given that volumes of homemade spirits and brews are estimated four times the volumes of commercial beer in Africa, it’s only logical that SABMiller is trying to woo beer drinkers across the continent to trade up to commercially-produced alcohol, i.e. their beers. The cheapest commercially brewed beers in Africa are sorghum beers and with Chibuku SABMiller think they have got a winner.

In the battle over market shares South African Breweries (SAB), a subsidiary of SABMiller, declared itself the winner. On 14 February 2012, Norman Adamai, Managing Director of SAB, said the brewer had recaptured the market it lost when one of its biggest brands, Amstel, was taken by competitor Brandhouse, the joint venture between Heineken, Diageo and Namibia Breweries.

Two years ago SAB, the South African unit of SABMiller, announced it would build a brewery in northern Namibia after it had finally obtained a licence to brew beer in Namibia following a decades long struggle. But to date, not even the ground has been broken. What has held up the project? According to rumour, Norman Adami, the powerful Managing Director of SAB, did not want to see 220,000 hl in production volume go to neighbouring Namibia, as he was still desperately trying to cope with over-capacity at his seven breweries after the loss of the Amstel licence which had accounted for more than 9 percent of SAB’s volumes before April 2007 (when Heineken terminated the licensing contract).

If they can brew a clear beer with sorghum, why can't they do it with cassava? Actually, SABMiller seem to have come up with a way of doing it. In an effort to provide consumers with an affordable beer, SABMiller at the end of October 2011 put the first cassava-based beer, called Impala Cerjeva, into the Mozambique market.