Heineken International Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Francois Van Boxmeer, says despite security and other challenges, Nigeria will continue to attract foreign investors because of the “high rate of return on investment.”
Jean-Francois Van Boxmeer
Heineken International is the parent company of Nigerian Breweries.
Boxmeer, Co-Chair at the World Economic Forum in Abuja, explained that Nigeria is in a strong position to outwit others for investment because of its huge population, high rate of urbanisation and a growing middle class.
Said he: “Nigeria’s young population has huge potentials complemented with the high spirit of the people.
“Even if Nigeria is a very diverse country, we understand it’s a little bit like India, but somewhere you have a fighting spirit which unifies you and this I think is a great asset for a people to do business with.”
Boxmeer, who spoke in Lagos, confirmed that his conglomerate saw the analysis on Nigeria’s economic prospects and resolved to improve its presence in the country, which hosts its second largest operations after Mexico.
“But we have been in this country for so many years and we’ve always seen that the potential was perhaps beyond the international image of the country. So we have been building our position of leadership.
“Nigerian Breweries has been in this country for decades and it wants to continue that leadership, because we have to invest ahead of the curve. If you don’t believe it and you are over conscious, you will lose the market share.
“If you observe that you have the potential, then you have to invest ahead of the curve.”
Boxmeer stressed that the efforts of successive governments give investors enormous confidence about the Nigerian economy.
He recalled that Nigeria in the past decades has improved a lot, making significant efforts to diversify out of oil.
According to him, a lot of efforts have been made in the development of other industries, not only in the manufacturing industry but also in telecommunications, information technology and banking which has had its ups and downs.
“But you do have a domestic banking sector which is so strong.”
Boxmeer reiterated that Nigerian Breweries has been investing in sorghum since the 1980s and doing a lot with sorghum, taking from people who are doing it for subsistence and doing barley at a tonne per hectare, with better yields and better varieties.
“Having the techniques and the stability of long term contracts, then you have to go to hybrid seed; that’s another step we are currently working on.
“Even the minister of agriculture acknowledged that we are investing in wheat programmes – a variety of wheat that can produce seven tonnes per hectare, so we are making progress on the growth and we will continue to do that.
“On cassava, we are particularly interested in the by-product, the processed produce of cassava which is glucose, which we can use for products like Maltina and Fayrouz.
“We are not strictly beer in Nigerian Breweries; we are also into products which use agricultural produce and so we will continue to look at that. I hope that within the coming years, Nigerian Breweries will be ahead in Heineken’s commitment in Africa to have by 2020, 60 per cent of our raw materials locally sourced.
“And with sorghum, there’s been major investment in improving the yields and that would be beneficial for all sorghum farmers in Nigeria, same goes for cassava.”
