By: Titus Akor Makurdi.

The Managing Director of the Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC) Dr. Raymond Asemakaha has disclosed that the state government is determined to revive its dormant agro-processing factory in other words Taraku Mills valued at over $50 million (about N70 billion)

Asemakaha also described it as a critical asset for job creation and economic development.

He made the disclosure during an inspection visit of the facility on Friday which has remained inactive since 2009, still has most of its equipment intact and in near-new condition despite years of abandonment.

Asemakaha attributed the preservation of the plant to the vigilance of the host community and security personnel, noting that unlike many government facilities that have been vandalised, no major equipment had been stolen from the factory.

He revealed that BIPC is currently conducting an asset audit to determine the state of the facility and the investments required to resume operations.

According to him, technical personnel who previously worked at the plant and possess institutional knowledge of its operations will be engaged to carry out assessments and dry-run tests beginning Monday.

The MD maintained that the government was committed to restoring the factory to full operation, stressing that reviving existing assets was more cost-effective than building new ones. He noted that lessons had been learnt from past attempts to lease government assets to operators who lacked the capacity to manage them.

He added that the factory would support value addition to agricultural produce such as maize and soybeans, create markets for farmers and stimulate economic activities across the state.

On employment prospects, he projected that the facility could directly engage no fewer than 2,000 youths, while creating numerous indirect jobs in farming, transportation and related sectors.

The MD also announced that the government would immediately settle five months of outstanding allowances owed to security personnel at the facility in appreciation of their efforts in safeguarding the assets.

He reiterated that the state government would do everything possible to ensure the factory resumes operations and contributes to economic growth and job creation in Benue State.

On his part, a Mechanical Engineer, James Ikuve, while fielding questions from Journalists, maintained that as a pioneer engineer of the factory, he can tell us the capacity of installation of equipment and what this place is set up to produce?

“The company is an agro allied integrated company that is meant to process a lot of seeds, a lot of products. Basically the plant, the factory is divided into two divisions.

“You have the maize and feeds mill division and then you have the oil division. within the maize and feeds mill division, the operations are interwoven and so what you have there is to have a maize feed plant that has the capacity to process 120,000 tons of maize per annum are nd then the feeds mill has the capacity to process 172,300 tons per annum of feeds.

“These feeds cut across all classes of animals. You can process them. We have done it before and so you can still do it. Then on the oil division, we have a preparatory plant, we have a soil extraction plant, and then we have an oil refinery plant. The preparatory plant is in two parts.You have the flacking side and you have two pre-cleaning, two flaking machines that have the capacity each of them to process up to 200 tons of soya per day and then on the press side you have two presses that have the capacity to process up to 200 tons per day.

“This is meant to feed the solvent extraction plant and the solvent extraction plant has the capacity to process up to 320 tons of beans per day and then you have the refinery plant that has the capacity to process up to 100 tons per day.” He maintained.

Earlier, the Chairman of Gwer East LGA. Mr Timothy Adi, thanked the Governor of Benue State Hyacinth Alia for coming to see this facility through the GMD of BIPC.

“Like most of us have been saying before, it was like our leaders stopped thinking after the days of Taraku mills until the coming of His Excellency.

“And it was like there was no BIPC until the coming of Asemakaha, so it’s a welcome development that he is thinking of reviving the plant and we look forward to cooperating with this development to see how this facility can be brought back to life.” Adi maintained.