Benue Mulls Brewery As Residents Spend N850m On Beer Consumption Monthly

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Tuesday, May 7th, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Benue State Government has decided to begin production of beer brands to stop capital flight to other states.

The Managing Director of Benue Investment and Property Company, Dr Raymond Asemakaha, made this known to journalists on Tuesday.

According to Asemakaha, the beer’s name will be revealed in its launch in December.

Asemakaha, who took journalists on a tour of the proposed brewery, water, and bakery factories in Makurdi, the state capital, stated that the initiative to set up a brewery was as a result of recent studies indicating that a huge amount of money leaves the state every month on beer consumption.

He said, “Basically, when we came on board, we understood that the rate of alcohol consumption in the state is between N850 million per month.

“We understand that the people that are selling these beers have taken this money out of Benue State.

“So, we discovered and said no, all we need to do is to float a new company that we can be able to observe and retain the cash flow within the system. That is why we are embarking on beer production.

“This N850 to N870 million is a monthly sale of beers in the state, and within the month of December, they have made one billion naira in sales. So, one of the things we are doing is to help retain the cash flow within the system.”

He also stated that the estimated production capacity is 180,000 bottles per day, and the fermentation period is 15 days.

“We will crash the price of beer in the state, but we are not going to compete with them (other breweries). We want to retain the cash within us. It is our own thing. So, the people here, our brothers and sisters, should be able to key in and take our products,” he said.

He disclosed that raw materials will be locally sourced and the factory would begin 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.