Region & History

Lagos is the city where Nigeria's industrial beer story began. In November 1946, Nigerian Brewery Limited was founded, built by the United Africa Company together with Heineken, and in June 1949 the first Star Lager rolled off the line in Lagos.

Long before that, people across West Africa brewed their own beers. Made from millet and sorghum, they go by different names depending on the region: Pito, Dolo, Tchoukoutou, or, in Nigeria, Burukutu and Otika. They're made at home, sold fresh, and were never meant for the bottle.

European bottled beer arrived with trade. The United Africa Company also sold Guinness in Nigeria through the 1940s and 1950s, and by 1962, according to the brewery's own history, the country was its largest export market, with around 100,000 barrels a year. That same year, the first Guinness brewery outside Ireland and Britain opened in Ikeja, near Lagos.

Today two companies dominate the market. Nigerian Breweries has been under Heineken's control since 2000. Guinness Nigeria was long majority-owned by Diageo; in 2024 Diageo sold its 58.02 percent stake to the Tolaram Group. Diageo retains the Guinness brand rights, while Guinness Nigeria continues to brew and distribute under license.

There's no protected designation of origin for Nigerian beer. Style names like lager or stout are used freely here, as everywhere else. If you want to read the country's beer history, you read it in the companies rather than in any protected name.