Heineken NV’s Nigerian unit is facing the worst downturn in the history of its operations in Africa’s most populous nation, the firm’s chief executive officer said in an investor call Monday. “It has been unprecedented year for our business in Nigeria,” Hans Essaadi, CEO of Nigerian Breweries Plc told investors in Lagos. “We saw a significant decline in the mainstream lager market as a result of Nigerian consumers no longer able to afford a Goldberg after a hard day’s work,” he said, adding that the businesses also suffered huge losses because of the naira devaluation, which resulted in a 153…

The active fleet of domestic airlines has shrunk in recent times leaving many of the airlines gasping for breath, findings by Daily Trust have shown. From a fleet of over 100 aircraft, less than 50 are active while many of the planes are either grounded or have gone for maintenance abroad. Many of the airlines are said to be facing acute shortage of foreign exchange to carry out scheduled maintenance abroad while airlines that already sent their aircraft abroad were accruing millions of dollars in demurrage in addition to the actual cost of maintenance. Virtually all the airlines are affected…

Commodity trader Olam Group said that its investigation found no evidence to support allegations of a reported scandal at its Nigerian units, spurring a surge in its Singapore-listed shares. The audit and risk committee, assisted by external counsel and independent accountants, had completed the review, without identifying any evidence, the company said in a statement. No charges have been brought against the subsidiaries nor any of their officers, with local businesses operating normally, it said. The company — which is about 51% held by Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore’s state-owned investment fund — has been under scrutiny following news reports in…

Are you pushing a rock uphill? When you're working on bringing a product or service to market, sometimes it can feel very burdensome – like you're pushing a heavy load skyward. A lot of effort is required and you're becoming exhausted in the process. But this is to be expected, right? You're always hearing that every new idea takes time, effort, patience, determination and plain hard work to become successful. It's true that what we perceive as an overnight success is usually at least 10 years in the making. There's more to it than that, though. Some ideas really are…