May & Baker Nigeria Plc — Companies

Why it is on record

The oldest pharmaceutical company in continuous operation in Nigeria — founded 4 September 1944 as a subsidiary of May & Baker Ltd of London. Indigenised under the 1976 NEPD. The federal yellow-fever vaccine programme of 2017–22 (Biovaccines Nigeria JV) is the largest vaccine-manufacturing project in Nigerian history.

Record held

Oldest pharmaceutical company in continuous operation in Nigeria (since 1944); founding partner of Biovaccines Nigeria Limited, the federal–private vaccine JV.

Founders

May & Baker Ltd of London (Dagenham) — subsidiary formed in Lagos under Edward Sieger, 4 September 1944.

Headquarters

3/5 Sapara Street, Industrial Estate, Ikeja, Lagos.

Lineage / corporate history

May & Baker Nigeria Limited incorporated 4 September 1944 as Lagos sales subsidiary of May & Baker Ltd (UK); converted to manufacturing under the 1972/1976 Indigenisation Decrees; UK parent (then Rhône-Poulenc, later Aventis, later Sanofi) divested entirely by 2003; listed NGX 2004; Biovaccines Nigeria Limited joint venture with Federal Government incorporated 2005 (M&B 51%, FGN 49%).

Current leadership

Chairman: Lt-Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (Rtd). Managing Director: Patrick Ajah.

Key dates

4 Sep 1944Incorporated in Lagos as subsidiary of May & Baker Ltd, Dagenham.
1976Indigenised under NEPD; majority Nigerian-owned.
2003Sanofi (the successor of Rhône-Poulenc / Aventis) divests remaining stake.
2004Listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
2005Biovaccines Nigeria Limited incorporated — federal yellow-fever vaccine joint venture (M&B 51%, FGN 49%).

Deep dive

May & Baker Nigeria has the longest continuous pharmaceutical-manufacturing record in the country, with operations beginning 4 September 1944 — a foundation date inside the colonial period that places it ahead of all other surviving Nigerian pharmaceutical manufacturers. The Dagenham, UK parent — May & Baker Ltd, famous for the 1937 sulphapyridine ('M&B 693') that saved Winston Churchill's life in 1943 — established the Lagos subsidiary to distribute its product line across British West Africa.

The indigenisation decrees of 1972 and 1976 progressively reduced the UK parent's holding; the final Sanofi divestment in 2003 made the company wholly Nigerian-owned ahead of the 2004 NGX listing. The Lt-Gen. T.Y. Danjuma chairmanship dates to that period and has continued through every subsequent restructuring.

The Biovaccines Nigeria Limited joint venture with the Federal Government — incorporated 2005 with M&B as the 51% controlling partner and the FGN as the 49% minority — is the largest single vaccine-manufacturing project in Nigerian history. The yellow-fever vaccine production line at the Ota (Ogun State) plant, commissioned through phased construction between 2017 and 2022, was intended to make Nigeria the second African producer of WHO-prequalified yellow-fever vaccine after Senegal's Institut Pasteur de Dakar. Production qualification has run behind original schedule but the project remains operationally live.