By Henry Ibya, Makurdi
Benue Investment and Property Company, BIPC, has disclosed that a new brand of beer that would be brewed by the company is set to hit the market first week of December this year.
Managing Director of the company, Dr. Raymond Asemakaha who made the disclosure, Tuesday, while speaking with journalists in Makurdi, after inspecting work at the proposed brewery site located at Kilometer 16, Akile, along Makurdi- Gboko road, said BIPC under his management considered the brewery project worth while having discovered that the alcoholic consumption in the state was on the high side.
“We understood basically that the alcoholic consumption in Benue is within the range of 850-870 million naira sales per month and based on the discovery of this research, we felt that those selling beer in the state were taking out money meant for development of the state.
“So we said what we need to do is to float a new company since the old Benue brewery, brewers of the former “More Beer” is sold out so that we can use the beer factory in returning the cash flow within the system, since alcohol is highly consumed in the state”, Asemakaha told journalists.
The managing director, BIPC, further disclosed that the brewery for a start targets about 180,000 capacity of production per day, which according to him is in line with the fermentation period of alcohol of 15 days.
He said already land for the site has been acquired, while government intend to spend about 700-800 million naira for the beer factory.
He further disclosed that BIPC would raise the capital funding from Benue indigenes both at home and in the diaspora for them to take ownership to avoid the mistake of the Aper administration.