Nigerian Breweries Announce Worst Sales in 15 Years As Beer Consumption Drops Due to Cash Scarcity
- Nigerian Breweries, the country's largest beer manufacturer, has announced its worst sales in 15 years.
- The decline in sales is due to a drop in beer consumption caused by cash scarcity in Nigeria
- The cash scarcity has severely impacted the purchasing power of Nigerians across the country
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Nigerian Breweries (NB) has announced its worst February sales in 15 years due to a drop in beer consumption in Nigeria.
The drop in consumption occurs as the Central Bank of Nigeria drained about 2.1 trillion old naira notes off circulation.
Source: Facebook
NB products include 33 Export lager beer, Williams dark ale, Turbo Kings dark ale, More lager beer, malt drinks, Maltina Pineapple, Maltina Vanilla, Amstel Malta Ultra, Star Radler Red Fruits, and Desperados,
Nigerian Breweries speaks on low sales
Speaking on the low sales, Hans Essaadi the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Breweries explained that Nigerians have spent hours — often in vain — waiting in ATM queues to withdraw banknotes.
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He added:
"Nigerian Breweries Plc like many other businesses, depends on cash for about 80% of its retail sales."
"Sales have been hit this quarter, not because people don’t have the appetite to consume, but because there’s no money. For the average man on the street, it’s a disaster.”
Solution to boost sales
To ease the impact on sales, BusinessDay reports that Nigerian Breweries plans to help some of its registered outlets to procure so-called point of sale devices to encourage electronic payments by customers.
Essaadi said:
"We believe that with the demographics of this country, being the biggest economy in Africa, business will come back when the cash situation normalizes."
More companies affected by naira scarcity
Nigerian Breweries is not the only company feeling the effect of the naira scarcity.
The Economic Times reported that Bajaj Auto, India’s biggest two-wheeler maker by market value have been force to cut production in its export-oriented plants by 25 percent.
This is because demand for motorcycles slumps in Nigeria, its top export market.
"Zenith *966*60#": Banks release codes for cardless cash withdrawal at ATMs
Meanwhile, in another report, Legit.ng revealed that commercial banks in Nigeria have introduced cardless ATM cash withdrawal.
To collect cash from an ATM without using a card, customers must generate a code on their mobile phones or through their mobile banking app
The latest innovation in banking technology preaches convenience and comes at a time Nigerians are battling with cash scarcity
Source: Legit.ng
