Nigeria: Benue Investment to build N800 mln brewery in Makurdi

The Benue Investment and Property Company, BIPC, is set to build an N800million brewery in Makurdi (central Nigeria) to produce its beer brand at the end of the year while its packaged water and bread will be in the market by the end of May, the Vanguard News reported on May 7.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, of the company, Dr. Raymond Asemakaha made this known Tuesday shortly after an inspection tour of ongoing work at the sites of the brewery, bakery and water factory in parts of Makurdi.

He said the company was going into beer production to enable the state also reap from the over N850million other beer firms rake from sales in the state monthly.

He said “when we came in we discovered that beer consumption in the state is within the range of N850million and N870million per month. In December alone the sale hit N1billion.

“So we want to see how we can retain large percentage of the cash flow within the system because the people in this business are taking our money out of Benue since no beer producing factory is in the state.

“So we resolved to float a new company that would produce a high quality brand that would help us retain the large percentage of the resources that leave the state and also offer employment opportunities to our teeming youths.

“And we intend to do 180,000 bottles per day. I must state that we are not going into competiton with any firm, we only want to check the capital flight with a high quality product.

“We hope to commence production by the first week of December. We already intend to give farmers seedlings to produce our raw materials and by so doing encourage backward integration. After which we off-take the products from the famers.”

Dr. Asemakaha explained the it would cost his company about N800million to set up the brewery saying the 23 Local Government Areas, LGAs, of the state would be encouraged to own 23 percent of the shares while Benue indigenes would be advised to acquire shares in the factory “because we want our people to own the business.”

On the water factory and bakery, the Managing Director said the two companies which were sited within the same premises at Tse Ayu, Along George Akume Way would cost the sum of N220m to complete assuring that they would be completed and commissioned on May 27, 2024.

Also the Departmental Head, Business Development and Strategy, BIPC, Mrs. Theresa Abeda said the company was breaking new grounds in investments given the wealth of experience and business know-how of the man at the helm of affairs who had been doing much to transform the company.

On his part, the Department Head, Real Estate and Infrastructure, Jerry Iosun assured that all projects being embarked upon by the company were of the best quality and in line with the acceptable construction standard.

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