Nigeria, March 27 -- Nigeria's biggest beer maker scaled up the remuneration of its top management by at least 25.2 per cent last year as the COVID-19 pandemic battered businesses and slashed its profit by half, but approved the lowest return in at least 15 years for its shareholders.

In a year its directors probably worked less by reason of lockdown curbs and other restrictions, the Nigerian Breweries prioritised rewarding its management at the expense of cutting cost, a PREMIUM TIMES analysis of its audited financial statements show.

The firm's board raised the directors' emoluments to N702.537 million from the N561.245 million it paid in 2019, the statements show.

That is besides the cost of the chairman's office and other reimbursa...