Rehabilitation Of Taraku Mills Reaches 83% Completion

The Benue State government owned company, Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC) has said the rehabilitation of the moribund Taraku Mills reached 83 percent completion.

BIPC said the factory is currently under test-running and will proceed to commercial dry-runs and certification before full market rollout between October and November.

The company said it had registered 2,847 in twelve local government areas of Benue state through it aggregation model.

A statement issued by the BIPC group managing director, Dr Raymond Asemakaha,

said Taraku Mill will create 1,500 direct jobs and over 5,000 indirect jobs for farmers, transporters and distributors.
Asemakaha stated further that the projected annual turnover is N8.2 billion, with over $2.5 million saved annually on edible oil imports.

According to the statement, BIPC employed 47 highly professional staff which included 18 engineers/technicians and 29 operators, “Our target at full capacity across all 10 product lines is 1,500 direct jobs”The statement said the total installed capacity at Taraku Mills, “is 200MT per day, with two soybean crushing lines of 50MT per day each already restored. We will start small and upscale gradually. Mechanical rehabilitation will be completed soon”

BIPC said, “In addition, there is a 5,000 KVA transformer on the industrial line in Taraku which guarantees up to 16 hours of power when connected. This administration is also finalizing a dedicated 2-megawatt supply for Taraku Mills, which will further cut energy costs by another 22%”

The statement added, “We will established 3 aggregation centres in Taraku, Gboko and Otukpo with 3,000MT combined storage. To sustain 100MT per day, Benue needs about 18,000 hectares annually. We are providing improved seeds for next season” BIPC said.