GlaxoSmithKline, GSK, Nigeria had on Thursday, August 3, announced its plans to put an end to doing business in the country after assessing the options for moving to a third-party distribution model for its drugs and consumer healthcare goods.
GSK Nigeria, had before this, been facing increased competition from local companies who import from India and China. Due to this, the company revealed that its half-year sales dropped to 7.75 billion Naira ($9.82 million), from 14.8 billion Naira in the same period in 2022.
The British parent company GSK has been in Nigeria since 1971, and had in 2018, announced that it would cut back its operations in Africa so it could adopt a distributor-led model instead of selling medicines in 29 sub-Saharan African markets.
GSK Nigeria has also revealed that it is presently working with advisers to consent on the next steps and plans to submit a scheme of arrangement to Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission.
If these are approved, GSK Nigeria will return cash to all shareholders but its parent company, GSK.
For the GSK Nigeria shares, –British drugmaker GSK has a 46.4% stake while Nigerian shareholders hold the remaining 53.6%– profits closed at a dismal 8.10 Naira, down from a high of 42.24 naira in 2014.
Inflation in Africa’s most populous nation, has been in the double digits since 2016, but it reached its highest post in June with 22.79%,
This figure is set to escalate further, after new President Bola Tinubu scrapped the subsidy on petrol and devalued the Naira in the hopes that they would boost economic growth and attract foreign investors imto the country.
