The Benue Investment and Property Company Limited, BIPC, is seeking private capital to overhaul its moribund industries as it launches a statewide audit, with a vow to fix the structural failures that crippled factories across the state.

Raymond Asemakaha, group managing director BIPC, disclosed this during an inspection of abandoned industrial assets in Benue South Senatorial District, led by Deputy Governor Sam Ode.

The team visited the long-abandoned Igumale Cement Factory in Ado LGA and the Otukpo Burnt Bricks plant established in the 1980s under the late Governor Aper Aku.

Asemakaha said the exercise is part of BIPC’s Root Cause Analysis aimed at identifying why industries collapsed and how to revive them under the Alia administration.

According to him, the analysis pointed to policy inconsistency, lack of continuity in government programmes, collapse of state-owned enterprises, weak private sector investment, poor infrastructure, and broken value chains as key drivers of industrial decline.

He noted that while Benue’s population has grown from about 2.5 million under Aku to over 7 million today, industrial output has moved in the opposite direction.

“Benue once had Benue Brewery, Taraku Mills, Benro Packaging, Lobi Bank, Benue Bottling Company, Flour Mills Makurdi, Benue Cement, Sheraton Hotel Makurdi, and fertilizer plants. Today most of them are dead or dying,” he said.

To reverse the trend, Asemakaha said BIPC will pursue revival of abandoned industries, return to the Aku industrial model, develop industrial clusters, drive aggressive investment promotion and build value chains around agriculture.

“Our strategy is simple, to revive industries, create jobs, reduce overdependence on government, and diversify the economy. BIPC will hold 35% equity while private investors lead operations,” he stated.

In a major move, Asemakaha directed the immediate resumption of work at Igumale Cement and renewed the state’s invitation to Chinese firm, Zhengzhou Cangxi Industry and Commerce Development Company Ltd, to return and complete the plant.

Recall that the $80 million cement project started in 2001 under a 7-year Build, Operate and Transfer arrangement with the Chinese government. Work stalled after 2017 when the company requested completion of an Environmental Impact Assessment and mining lease.

Mbamilin Yandev, director of Industry in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, confirmed that documentation was never concluded.

Deputy Governor Ode said the inspection aligns with Governor Hyacinth Alia’s directive to restore abandoned industries as a path to economic growth and job creation.

Local leaders including Sunny Oche, Ado LG Chairman, Francis Agbo, APC Senatorial candidate, as well as House of Reps candidate Anthony Agom, commended the move and urged swift action.

The delegation also ordered rehabilitation works to begin immediately at the Otukpo Burnt Bricks factory.