By John Charles
The Benue State government, on Tuesday, said plans had been concluded to start production of beer brands in the state.
The Managing Director of Benue Investment and Property Company, Dr Raymond Asemakaha, disclosed this to journalists on Tuesday, stating that this would help stop capital flight to other states.
Asemakaha, who took journalists on a tour of the proposed state brewery, water and bakery factories in Makurdi, said the initiative to set up a brewery plant came as a result of recent studies which showed the humongous amount of money leaving the state every month on beer consumption.
According to him, the study showed that beers worth N870m are consumed monthly in Benue State, while in December, residents spent over N1bn on beer.
Asemakaha said the company was out to give Benue and Nigerians high premium quality beer made from the state, using local raw materials.
He said that BIPC was not in competition with any brewery company and would ensure that people enjoy a beer with a difference.
He said, “Basically when we came on board, we understood that the rate of alcohol consumption in the state is around N850m per month.
“We understand that the people who sell these beers are taking this money out of Benue State.
“So, we concluded that all we need to do is to float a new company that can be able to retain the cash flow in the state. That is why we are embarking on beer production.
“This N850m to N870m is a monthly sale of beers in the state and, in December, the sales were over N1bn. So, one of the things we are doing is to help retain the cash flow within the system.”
The estimated production capacity of the plant, according to the MD, is 180,000 bottles per day, with a fermentation period of 15 days.
“We will crash the price of beers in the state, but we are not going to enter into any competition with them (other breweries), but we want to retain the cash within the state.
“It’s our own thing. So, the people here, our brothers and sisters, should be able to key in and take our products,” he added.
While stating that raw materials would be locally produced, Asemakaha added that the factory would commence full production by the first week of December.
“What we want to do is that this season, we want to give people seedlings so that we can go back to production and take those products from them to plant and harvest,” he added.
Asemakaha said the brewery project would cost between N700m and N800m.
