The Benue State Government has announced its intention to offer tax holidays to attract investors to the state.
According to Dr. Raymond Asemakaha, Managing Director of Benue Investment and Property Company Limited, this initiative aims to revive and attract more investors.
During a meeting with representatives of Nigerian Brewery in Makurdi on Wednesday evening, Asemakaha urged the company to resume production at its plant located along Makurdi/Gboko road within the next 90 days.
Nigerian Brewery had relocated to Kaduna a few years ago, citing an “unfriendly business environment” in Benue State. However, Asemakaha emphasized that the state government has now created a more business-friendly environment, including the introduction of a one-stop shop for ease of doing business and the offer of tax holidays to incentivize investors.
He expressed the state government’s eagerness to see companies return to full production, highlighting the availability of raw materials, such as sorghum, and a readily available workforce to support the brewery’s operations.
“The state has introduced easy ways of doing business with a one-stop shop, and so with tax holidays, it is important for you to quickly return to production,” he said.
He lamented that the Nigerian Brewery failed to utilize the backward integration that would have transformed Benue farmers but rather chose Kaduna State despite the fertile land the state has for sorghum cultivation.
In her response, the Corporate Affairs Manager covering the East and Middle Belt for the Nigerian Brewery, Joy Egolum, acknowledged the state’s efforts and expressed the company’s willingness to consider the incentives offered.
However, she noted the challenges associated with the immediate resumption of operations, stating that even routine maintenance can be time-consuming.
“We will come back to you very soon; we don’t need 90 days, but anyone who runs a production line will agree with me that even doing maintenance takes a longer time. So it’s not possible for us to do production within that time frame, but we understand how passionate you are, and we will get a response before the 90 days and proceed from there,” Egolum said.