Cephas Iorhemen 
The Benue State government yesterday announced plans to establish the leather and nail production industries as part of measures to boost the economy of the state.
Managing Director of Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC) Limited, Dr Raymond Asemakaha, disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists on the occasion of his birthday celebration in Makurdi.
He said, “In the next 25 days, we are going to start leather production because we found out that we did a cost benefit analysis and we discovered that we are spending a lot on leather production on the bread wrapper.
“So we have purchased the machinery already and we have gotten a place at the back of our headquarters here. So in the next 25 days, we flag it off.
“Then, we are also going to start the nail production because in the whole of the North Central, they buy it from the East and bring it and we feel it is important that BIPC should champion these things.
“So, in the next 30 days, we are also going to launch that and invite you (the media) to come and see that these are the projects we are doing”.
Dr Asemakaha further disclosed that the company has so far put in place a whooping N700 million in the beer company since its establishment barely three months ago.
He said BIPC has embarked on several projects and is poised to deliver all of them, to make the state an industrial hub in the North Central, adding that renovation work on the Benfruits has been completed and work is to start in November this year.
The BIPC Managing Director said the company has employed over 211 workers for direct labour and 179 for indirect labour on the company’s projects.
