Nigerian Breweries Champions Local Barley to Slash $150m in Annual Imports

Thibaut Boidin, The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Breweries Plc

Nigeria’s largest brewer, Nigerian Breweries Plc, is leading the charge to reduce the country’s $150 million annual barley import bill, unveiling promising results from a pilot programme that tested the commercial viability of locally grown barley in northern Nigeria.
At a recent barley field day in Ringim, Jigawa State, the company revealed that over 1,000 smallholder farmers participated in its Maltina Barley Programme, producing an estimated 1,000 tons of barley this season. While the output is modest compared with national demand, it signals that local barley cultivation is both feasible and scalable.
“Our goal is to develop a barley value chain rooted in Nigerian soil, powered by Nigerian farmers, and capable of meeting the quality standards of the brewing industry,” said Thibaut Boidin, Managing Director and CEO of Nigerian Breweries. “But achieving this ambition requires collaboration beyond the private sector.”
Scaling local production to industrial levels will demand coordinated support from government agencies, financiers, agricultural input providers, and farmers themselves, according to Federico Agressi, the company’s Supply Chain Director. “Building a sustainable commercial barley value chain is a long journey,” he noted. “It will require persistence, hard work, and consistent government backing.”
Research collaborations with the Lake Chad Research Institute and Secobra Research led to the registration of three high-yield barley varieties—Traveler, Explorer, and Prunella—in 2024. Further studies with IDH – The Sustainable Trade Initiative and Dalberg identified over 400,000 hectares of suitable farmland across northern Nigeria for barley cultivation.
The brewer’s programme aims to support 20,000 farmers by 2030, contingent on policy stability, financing access, and continued import allowances during the transition period to local production.
The push for local barley follows a strong financial turnaround for Nigerian Breweries, which returned to profit in 2025 after a challenging 2024 marked by foreign exchange losses. The company posted a net profit of N99.1 billion, driven by stable exchange rates and rising domestic sales, resulting in record revenue of N1.5 trillion.
Investor confidence has also risen, with Nigerian Breweries’ shares gaining roughly 9% year-to-date, trading at N82 as of March 6, 2026, ranking it 90th on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) in performance terms.
With local barley cultivation now proving viable, Nigerian Breweries is positioning itself to not only reduce import dependency but also strengthen Nigeria’s agricultural and industrial ecosystem, creating jobs and boosting local content across the brewing sector.
Nigerian Breweries pilots local barley cultivation in northern Nigeria, aiming to cut $150 million in annual imports while supporting 20,000 farmers and strengthening the country’s brewing supply chain.