CAPITAL FLIGHT: BENUE TO ESTABLISH NEW BEER COMPANY - ASEMAKAHA
7th May, 2024
Dr Raymond Asemakaha, Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC) said that the company has commenced plans to establish a new beer factory in the state.
The MD/CEO of BIPC noted that the factory which will cost the state about N800 million to build, would commence sale to the Benue public in the first week of December, 2024.
Dr Asemakaha, who disclosed this while inspecting the project site at Akile community, km 16, Makurdi-Gboko road on Tuesday explained the factory when it becomes fully operational, would stem the issue of capital flight from the sale of beer, which in the region of N700 million to N1 billion monthly.
While INDEPENDENT gathered that when the company becomes fully functional by the first week of December, 2024, it is expected to crash the prices of beer in the state, even as we learned that funds for the establishment of the project would be drawn from among the Benue people.
December is the Christmas season when the sale of beer and other alcoholic beverages experiences a boom; not just in Benue, but across the country.
According to Dr Asemakaha, “When we came in we understood that basically the alcoholic consumption in Benue is between N850 to N870 million per month. And we understand that the people selling this beer are taking our money out of Benue State.
“So we decided that what we need to do is float a new company so that we can retain the cash flow within the system. That is why we have decided to embark on beer production.
“For instance, in the month of December, 2924, they made a total or over N1 billion sales so one of the things we are doing is to retain this cash flow within the system.”
He further said, “We will be doing (producing) about 180 bottles ( of beer) per day, because the fermentation period is within fifteen days
“This farming season we want to give people (farmers) seedlings so that we can do backward integration and take back those produce from them when they harvest.
“We have done our research and discovered that the people that came and bought out brewery were not doing so to produce, they were buying to kill it, because we are the food basket of the nation. We have sorghum, it’s it?
“We have everything that it takes to feed that plant and they came to us, because they knew we were the major competitors and that’s why they took us down. They are capitalists and we have understudied their model that’s why we are bringing it (beer factory) back.”
On the issue of funding, Asemakaha said, “The project for the beer factory is within the range of N700 to N800 million and we can raise the funds. One of the things we want to do is to source funding. We want people to also own the business; not just government alone.
“In times past most of the projects that were done by a former governor of the state, Late Aper Aku, were solely owned by government. But this time around, we want Benue citizens to own such companies. So we will raise capital out there and do the job, so that you and I can also own shares.
“We are also considering the situation where every Local Government Council in the state, will own 1 percent share holding in the company; we have 23 local government areas and the remaining shares will be given out to other citizens of the state.
“We have already purchased the land for the project and hopefully, by next week, we will perform the ground breaking ceremony”, he stated.
Furthermore, Dr Asemakaha observed that “Very soon BIPC will be taking possession of Ben Fruits. So in a couple of months we will start unrolling the soft drinks; we are already working on all these and it will soon be in the market.”
He also explained that BIPC has concluded plans to launch the water factory and bakery situated at Tse Ayu, George Akume way, Makurdi, on the 27th May, 2024, two days to the one year anniversary of the State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia.
Also speaking at the occasion, Theresa Abeda, Departmental Head, Business Development and Strategy, noted that staff assigned to BIPC has made the assignment of the department in identifying and developing business strategies much easier.
She however said more importantly was the support from the MD/CEO, who has supported the staff financially and otherwise, adding that his support has served as a motivation and spurred them to do more, she declared. End.
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