Benue State Government has declared its intention to offer tax holidays to investors interested in investing in the state.
The gesture, according to the Managing Director of Benue Investment and Property Company Limited, Dr Raymond Asemakaha, is to revive and attract more investors to the state.
Asemakaha, who played host to the representatives of Nigerian Brewery in Makurdi, on Wednesday evening, however, called on the management of the company to resume production at its plant located along Makurdi/Gboko road within the next 90 days.
Nigerian Brewery which took over a plant in the state relocated to Kaduna a few years ago due to what it termed an ‘unfriendly business environment’.
Speaking during the meeting, Asemakaha said that government had created a more business-friendly environment.
According to him, the government has introduced 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 operating in the state return to full production, stating that the state has a wealth of raw materials, such as sorghum, as well as 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.
