The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Brewery

  • Brewery, NGO unveil community water and sanitation projects

    Brewery, NGO unveil community water and sanitation projects

    Guinness Nigeria Plc, a subsidiary of Diageo, has partnered a non governmental organisation (NGO), Concern Universal, to pioneer sustainable method of integrating rural sanitation and hygiene promotion with access to safe water. This novel approach, which strengthens the 10 year-old Diageo Water of Life project, is being implemented by Concern Universal in 10 communities across three local government areas of Cross River State.

    Inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, coupled with poor hygiene practices, are responsible for the spread of deadly, but preventable, diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, and typhoid.

    In Nigeria, where a quarter of the population defecates in the open, over 150,000 children under the age of five die yearly from diarrhoea alone. Together, improvements in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are responsible for preventing up to 90 per cent of diarrhoeal diseases.

    Guinness Nigeria Plc Corporate Relations Director,  Sesan Sobowale said: “Guinness Nigeria recognises that millions of people still do not have access to clean and safe water. One in five persons around the world cannot access safe drinking water; and in Nigeria, 63 million people do not have access to clean water. This is why Guinness Nigeria and the Diageo Foundation teamed up with Concern Universal to provide clean water for rural communities in Cross River State. Our partnership leverages our collective strengths to help beneficiary communities improve their water, sanitation, and hygiene, and ultimately, their health.”

    Guinness Nigeria’s partnership with Concern Universal supports the Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion in Nigeria (RUSHPIN) programme by providing access to safe water in villages that have achieved open defecation-free status in Cross River State.

    Committee members are also facilitated to develop their own water management plans, including financing future repairs and conserving water during drier seasons.

    Concern Universal’s Country Director, Tim Kellow, explained how “this approach, which carefully sequences demand-led sanitation and hygiene behaviour change with participatory water management, is creating a model for the WASH sector, in Nigeria and beyond, to ensure that the introduction of water points works in tandem with sanitation and hygiene promotion to prevent killer diseases, such as diarrhoea”.

    Sustainable Development Manager, Guinness Nigeria, Osita Abana, while remarking on the project’s impact in Cross River State said: “During my visit to beneficiary communities, I was inspired to see first hand, the positive impact the Guinness/Concern Universal partnership is already making. Families, who used to fetch water from streams, now have easy access to clean water. Communities have also adopted proper hygiene habits that will limit the spread of preventable diseases like diarrhoea and cholera.”

    Through the partnership’s pilot project, Guinness Nigeria and Concern Universal have helped 6,000 people in 10 communities to access safe drinking water. In addition, 120 community members have been trained in basic borehole maintenance and water resource management.

  • Brewery stocks school

    Brewery stocks school

    The Nigerian Breweries Plc has rehabilitated and stocked a school library in Aba, Abia State. The brewers, through the Felix Ohiwerei Trust Fund, rebuilt and equipped the facility at Boys Technical College (BTC), Osusu Aba.

    The gesture brought relief to the school and the community.

    Through the Ohiwerei foundation many communities in Aba and such nearby settlements as Osokwa and Abayi, among others, have benefitted from the NBL project.

    NBL Plc has donated classroom blocks and equipped libraries in their host communities with various textbooks and other facilities.

    The result has been remarkable. Learning has improved, with pupils having more materials to study and in a convenient environment.

    It is a huge departure from what used to be. Schools often lacked basic infrastructure, a development that impacted negatively on the performance of pupils.

    However, in what seems to be a continued effort to further extend its service to Aba and Abia residents, NB Plc has yet singlehandedly refurbished and handed over a fully equipped modern library facility to the authority of Boys Technical College (BTC), Osusu Aba, Abia State.

    BTC is one of the technical schools in the southeast and Abia State where youths with various or no skill but have interest in fabrication and other craft are trained and equipped with the requisite knowledge to be self employed at the completion of their secondary school programme even if they don’t want to further their education.

    Speaking at the handover of the refurbished library, furniture and textbooks which attracted the presence of students, teachers and other management staff of BTC and NB Plc, Aba Brewery manager, Mr. Udah Ukeje said that the event was also used to mark the 2015 “Brewing a better World” (BaBW) project.

    Udah who was represented by Lolu Ogunkeye, head brewer, Aba brewery happing on the gains of education to the society stated that the company would never relent in its resolve to continue assisting the state and federal government in giving education a facelift.

    Ogunkeye, reiterating the importance of technical education which students of the secondary school were being exposed to, noted that the economic development of Nigeria would be on the increase and unemployment reduced drastically if special attention would be given to technical.

    Ogunkeye was optimistic that the refurbished library would enhance teaching and learning among teachers and students in the institution.

    “We believe that if we upgrade the school’s library it will go a long way [in empowering] the students to become better human beings and better future leaders, and that for us, is the foundation, because with knowledge, we will be able to do a lot more things”, Ogunkeye said.

    In his response, BTC principal, G.O. Nnamdi said he was excited over the project and thanked the management of NB plc for selecting their school as one of the schools that would benefit from their educational pet project.

    Nnamdi who promised to secure and put the donated items into good, used the opportunity to beckon on NB plc and other corporate organizations and well-meaning individuals in the commercial town and the state at large to come and help the school by providing them with technical education facilities and to complete the perimeter fencing of the school which he said would help them to secure the donated facilities from being carted away by hoodlums.

    Nnamdi said, “We have a lot of problems in this school, and we are happy that you have solved one of them, which is the library. We have a porous environment, our school needs fencing. We need also equipment in the workshop as well as electricity”.

    A senior staff at the State Secondary School Management Board (SEMB), Aba zone, Mr. Eugene Uzoma Nwaoha Nigerian Breweries plc has invested wisely into the future of Abia children and has also assisted Abia State Government in providing infrastructure in public schools in the State.

    While calling on the brewing company not to relent in their efforts in patterning with the state government to continue giving education a facelift in the state urged other organizations in the state to emulate the good steps of NB plc who have made education a priority in the Corporate Social responsibility.

    “If you go to some public schools in the state, like Ngwa High School and Osokwa Secondary School, you will see very magnificent class-room blocks, built and equipped by the Nigerian Breweries plc, and it has been so wonderful, because NB plc is not the only company in Aba, there are so many other companies that make money from this city and none of them has shown this type of interest in the education sector and I want to ask them to queue into the steps taken so far by NB plc”.

     

  • Brewery boosts school infrastructure

    A good of illustrious people have passed through it, one of them being the late Justice Daddy Onyeama, the first Nigerian to be appointed a judge at the World Court at the Hague. But its fame has not insulated it against the worm of decay.

    Central Primary School Eke, Udi Local Government of Enugu State was founded in 1910. It started with a class of six pupils. Among them was the grandfather of retired footballer, Nwankwo Kanu’s wife, the late Mazi Joseph Onyeador.

    The school was founded by Catholic missionaries with the approval of the legendary Chief Onyeama n’Eke. Onyeama, whose influence stretched all over Wawa land, being a strong and dreaded ruler, welcomed the idea of establishing the school as the white man convinced that Western education was good. That was why the school was established.

    It metamorphosed from a private missionary school managed by the Catholic Church to a public institution after the takeover by the government in 1970. Before its takeover, it had actually produced men of substance from Eke and environs. The takeover by the government, however, turned to be a curse as the infrastructures in the school started decaying. The buildings became decrepit while pupils studied under trees. The school and the community begged for assistance, but there was none coming.

    But mother luck recently smiled on them. The Nigerian Breweries PLC, which has its factory in the neighbouring community of Amaeke Ngwo heard their cry. The breweries after consultations with leaders of the community, through their community relations programmes, came to the rescue of the old school.

    The NB Plc built an ultra-modern block of six classrooms and a library for the school. The facilities have been commissioned and handed over to the school. Functional conveniences were provided for each of the classes in the block, furnished with tables and chairs for teachers and pupils. The library section has work stations and relevant books stocked.

    The managing director and chief executive of the the Nigerian Breweries PLC, Mr. Nicolaas Vervelde at the handing over of the block, noted that the building took enormous resources and “it is our expectation that the teachers, pupils and the community will assist to protect and maintain it for sustainable use.”

    Verlverde turned to the pupils and admonished: “My dear children, it is our hope that this facility will improve your comfort and enhance your learning ability. As you learn in this complex, and acquire the desired knowledge for growth, you should always think of the right ideals for you to better Nigerians. You must shun violence and other vices  militating our economic development and nation building.

    The MD told the audience it was obvious the government alone cannot carry the entire burden of education, “hence this donation to our good people of Eke.”

    He further expressed appreciation of the “positive effort of the state governor, Barrister Sullivan Chime in the development of education in the state.”

    He said: “Education is the greatest legacy to be bequeathed to any child and remains very paramount to our existence and sustainable development. As a world class company, we have continued to support education in various aspects all over Nigeria in line with our ‘winning with Nigeria’ philosophy.

    The President of Eke Town Union, Nze Anthony Enu commended and thanked the NB PLC for rescuing the one of the oldest primary schools in Udi area. He wished the company “many more fruitful years of  business and mega expansion in their brewery industry and commerce which in a short while will translate into another and bigger dividends to Eke community.”

    Enu said: “ You will agree with me that today is quite unique because a promise made in February 2014, commenced in April 2014, completed and equipped in September 2014, is today in October 2014 being commissioned and handed over in grand style and fashion to Eke community for onward use to further promote education which will confer knowledge and power to our emerging youths.”

    Headmistress of the school, Mrs. Angela Aguji in her remark said the school and the community were “singing praises to the excellent, wonderful and marvelous work of the Nigerian Breweries PLC.”

    “The children are making you a promise to achieve success in their studies and be future hopes of Nigerian breweries workers.”

    The commissioning and cutting of the tape was done by the Enugu state commissioner for education, Prof. Chris Okolo who represented Governor Sullivan Chime.

     

  • Firm marks 10th anniversary

    Firm marks 10th anniversary

    Brewing giant, Nigerian Breweries Plc has restated its commitment and confidence in the Nigerian economy. Mr. Kufre Ekanem, Corporate Affairs Adviser to the company restated the commitment at the 10th anniversary of the fully-automated state-of-the art Ama Greenfield Brewery fitted with cutting-edge technology in Enugu, Enugu State.

    The firm also used the occasion as a showcase to take journalists round the facility. One of the remarkable features of this facility is its perfect condition even after 10 years of operation.

    The journalists were taken through the different production processes of the-state-of-the-art brewery. The 30MHL capacity brewery, which costs a whopping 220 million Euros (N30 billion) to build in 2003, has also created employment for over 1,000 workers; both full time employees, contractors and outsourced.

    Ekanem said: “At a time like the 10th anniversary of Ama Breweries, it is critical that we pull our friends for two reasons. First, those 10 years after inauguration, the Ama brewery is still top-notch because of its world-class facility.

    Also, the quality of staff there can match their contemporaries from any part of the world. The heritage of forthrightness and forward-thinking is a tradition with Nigerian Breweries. This is why we have decided to celebrate the milestone with our media partners and friends.”

    Speaking during the media facility tour, John Richardson, Brewery Manager informed journalists that the milestone is a direct result of Nigerian Breweries Plc’s relentless effort to consolidate its leadership position in the beer market.  “For Ama Brewery, the past 10 years in the Nigerian market has been a success story. The decision to establish the facility here in Enugu was a very good business decision because it has resulted in 10 years of very strong business and community relationships. This success story is made possible by Heineken and the indigenous communities here in Enugu,” he said.

    He further stressed that the company has maintained its high standard by concentrating on the development of its workforce:

    “Nigerian Breweries has been in the Nigerian market since 1946 and has trained and re-trained hundreds of thousands of workers in the process. For the last 10 years, Ama has also created valuable employment opportunities for young and enterprising youths in Nigeria. By our sheer size, we are able to employ people full time and have other adjuncts like contractors, loaders and others. We are here for the long haul,” Ekanem said.

    Inaugurated on October 24, 2003 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the facility, described by some as “the jewel in the crown of Heineken NV(Nigerian Breweries’ parent company)” was, until recently, Africa’s biggest brewery and is reputed to be one of the most modern breweries in the world and the first of its kind in Africa. It is the company’s sixth brewery and the second to be established in the Eastern heartland; following Aba Brewery, also owned by Nigerian Breweries.

    The Brewery boasts the best cutting-edge technology and world-class standard processes. With an installed capacity of 30MHL or one million carton units per week, it is also equipped with an ultra-modern waste water treatment plant in line with safe manufacturing practices worldwide.

    The first brew was made on March 22, 2003 while the first bottle of Star Lager rolled off the bottling line at exactly 12.15 p.m. on Thursday, April 24, 2003. Ama Brewery encapsulates the essential ingredients of the world-class vision of Nigerian Breweries Plc and represents another milestone in the company’s journey towards the realisation of that vision. It was, and still is, a bold statement by the company that its world-class vision is real.

    Beyond these, Ama Brewery holds enormous socio-economic benefits for the community, the state and the country at large.

    In addition to opening up the communities to commerce and modernisation, Enugu State has also benefited from increased revenue and the building of international confidence for investment. This multi-billion Naira investment, as expected, has translated into enhanced employment, as well as opening a floodgate of business activities and opportunities in the economy.

    In the area of corporate social responsibility, the company donated patrol vans to Enugu State government and Enugu State Police Command to enhance the operation of security agencies. It has also provided scholarships, e-learning centres, fish ponds, broken pallets for firewood and a civic centre to Umuezeani, the host community.

    Since education is one core area of its CSR portfolio, the company donated a fully equipped laboratory complex to University of Nigeria, Nsukka. It has also supported Udi Local Government Area by constructing a block of six classrooms each, libraries, tables and chairs for pupils and teachers, complete with conveniences for all classes to Awhum Community School, Awhum Community Primary School, Ngwo Uno and Nsude Community School.