Nigerian Bottling Company returned to Abuja’s International Hospitality, Tourism and Eco-Sustainability Forum ( IHTEF 9.0 ) as headline sponsor for the second consecutive year, this time putting ₦1 million in prize money and a mobile bar unit behind a live cocktail competition designed to convert training participants into working hospitality professionals.
Victoria Esu won the Bartender Academy competition, beating nine finalists drawn from the broader two-day training programme. Her prize includes the cash award, a professional starter kit, and a one-year mentorship with NBC’s Jack Daniel’s Mixologist Ambassador. Runners-up Ndubuizu Chinenye and Bayo Damilola Peter each received ₦500,000 and starter kits. The structure is less corporate gifting and more deliberate seeding: NBC and Schweppes are co-sponsoring the training, Jack Daniel’s brand exposure runs through the competition itself, and the prize package funds a new operator directly into the market.
Training sessions were led by Jude Ewaleifoh, Jack Daniel’s brand ambassador, and covered mixology, beverage presentation, bar economics, and hospitality entrepreneurship. For a spirits brand competing in Nigeria’s crowded on-trade, placing its ambassador at the centre of a national skills programme is also placement strategy.
NBC Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Director Dr. Soromidayo George delivered the forum keynote, arguing that sustainable expansion in African hospitality requires investment in people and local supply chains, not just capital. “Africa’s hospitality sector holds enormous potential for employment, entrepreneurship, and economic growth,” George said, “but sustainable expansion requires stronger operational ecosystems and deliberate investment in people and local capability.” NBC’s own YouthEmpowered programme expanded its internship intake to 20 participants this year, suggesting the Bartender Academy sits inside a broader NBC push to build out the hospitality workforce it sells into.
The commercial logic is legible. A more formally trained hospitality sector increases demand for premium spirits, improves bar execution, and creates credentialled operators who know the brands they were trained with. Diageo ran the same play in Lagos last month, graduating over 300 participants from its Learning for Life programme, with 157 completing internship placements across bars, hotels, and restaurants in Lagos State.
The IHTEF forum drew over 500 stakeholders across hospitality investment, operations, and policy. As both NBC and Diageo build structured pipelines into the same sector, what they are also building is a new generation of Nigerian hospitality professionals whose standard reference points, by design, are their brands.
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