"You Cause It": Nigerian Breweries Records Over N10bn Loss in Three Months, Blames CBN Policy, Other Issues

• Nigerian Breweries experienced a decline in revenue of N10.71 billion in its Q1 2023 financial result
• The NB board attributed the drop in revenue to several challenges including CBN naira redesigned policy
• The CBN announced the withdrawal of the old 1000, 500, and 200 naira notes in February, which led to a serious cash scarcity

Nigerian Breweries, the largest brewing company in Nigeria, has reported a significant loss of N10.71 billion in the first quarter if 2023.

The producer of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages submitted its financial results to the Nigerian exchange, showing a decrease in revenue to N123.3 billion for the first quarter of 2023, which ended on March 31.

This is in contrast to N137.77 billion recorded for the same period in the previous year(2022).

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Commenting on the result, the NB board blames CBN policy and election for the drop in revenue.

"The operating environment during the period under review was very challenging for businesses.

"The impact of the cash crunch which led to a near collapse of payment channels as well as the security and safety uncertainties associated with the general elections, created disruptions in the economy.

"These were in addition to the continuing headwinds of inflationary pressure with its impact on purchasing power, input cost, and operating expenses."

CBN policy

You will recall that the CBN on February 10, 2023, implemented a reduction in currency circulation on February 10, 2023, by replacing the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes with newly redesigned banknotes.

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However, the apex bank printed insufficient currencies, which led to naira scarcity.

This scarcity had a significant impact on consumer spending, which is crucial for breweries that rely heavily on customers seeking to unwind.

CBN to close millions of bank accounts in Access, UBA, Zenith, and others

Meanwhile, in another report, Legit.ng revealed that CBN is planning to close bank accounts without BVN to clean up the sector and reduce fraud

BVN is a unique identifier capturing biometric data used to verify customer identities and prevent fraud

There are 24 commercial banks operating in Nigeria including Access, UBA, Zenith, and other financial institutions that require BVN

Source: Legit.ng