Brewers get gender maths as Anammah emerges NB chairman

Nigeria’s largely capitalised companies are gradually getting the gender equality calculations right in their board leadership formation.

Taking the lead are listed brewing giants, the latest being the appointment of Juliet Anammah as first female board chair of Nigerian Breweries Plc.

Rising from its December 12 board meeting, Nigerian Breweries Plc appointed Juliet Anammah as the substantive chair of the board effective January 1, 2025.

She takes over from Sijbe ‘Siep’ Hiemstra, who has been the board chairman in an interim capacity since the start of the year.

Anammah joined the board effective January 1, 2022 and prior to her appointment as the chair of the board, she was the chair of the Governance and Ethics Committee.

Read also: Nigerian Breweries says rights issue subscribed by 91.59%

She has over three decades of professional experience covering consulting, consumer goods, sales, marketing, e-Commerce, and sustainability.

She is the immediate past chair and chief group sustainability officer of Jumia Nigeria, having previously held the role of chief executive officer with Jumia.

She had also served as the managing director, Accenture LLC, in charge of the firm’s consumer goods practice, retail, and transportation practice in West Africa. She serves on the boards of local and international organisations, including Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc.

“Progress is being made and we now have female board chairs at two of the NGX-30 companies. Congratulations to Juliet,” an informed market source told BusinessDay.

“Mobola Johnson is the chair of Guinness. The brewers certainly get the maths right. We are slowly closing the gender equality gap with seasoned and competent women in leadership,” he added.

Nigerian Breweries’ recent rights issue was 91.59 percent subscribed. The company launched its N599.1 billion rights issue on September 2, offering 22.61 billion ordinary shares at N26.50 per share, utilising a ratio of 11 new shares for every five held as of July 12.

Read also: Nigerian Breweries can’t seem to shake-off naira devaluation woes

The capital raising exercise became necessary due to the significant losses incurred by the company after the devaluation of the Naira.

Three years ago, Guinness Nigeria appointed Omobola Johnson as its board chair following the retirement of Babatunde Savage.

Earlier this year, Guinness Nigeria Plc had sold Diageo’s 58.02 percent shareholding to Tolaram, making it the new majority shareholder. The deal was valued at over N103 billion at the then premium price of N81.60 per share.

Though Guinness Nigeria Plc’s after-tax loss stood at N12.2 billion in the nine months of 2024 from an after-tax profit of N2.59 billion in the same period of 2023, the firm’s revenue grew to N125.9 billion from N59.5 billion during the reviewed period. Cost of sales grew to N111.6 billion from N41.4 billion.