By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief & Franklin Alli
Transnational Corporation of Nigeria PLC, Transcorp, last weekend gave meaning to the nation’s new agriculture value-chain policy with the commissioning of the N1 billion Teragro, an agricbuisness subsidiary, for the production of fruit juice concentrates.

Located at the Makurdi Industrial Layout in the Benue State capital, Teragro, which was opened by President Goodluck Jonathan as part of his working visit to Benue State provides a value added opportunity for large scale production of oranges and mangoes in the state and environs.

The N1 billion, 26,500 metric tons of installed capacity of orange and mango juice concentrate per annum facility was financed by consortiums of local banks led by UBA Plc.  Other banks in the consortium included First of Nigeria Plc and Wema Bank Plc, among other financiers.

President Jonathan commended the government and people of Benue State for ensuring a peaceful environment for business, saying that it would serve as boost for private sector investment in the state.  “Let me sincerely thank Governor Gabriel Suswam for the enabling environment he has created here because no matter what we have in each states of the federation, if there is no peace and security, nobody will want to come and invest.

“If you spend billions of dollars to build a factory and one day, one man blows it up, nobody wants that. So, I thank the Governor for working hard to maintain peace and security in this State that has attracted private sector operators like Transcorp,” the president said.

According to the president, all states of the federation have resources that can be harnessed for the socio-economic well-being of the people and therefore challenged state governments to look inwards, rather than depending solely on oil money from the federation account.

“Before oil, our economy was sustained by agriculture. We even fought a civil war without borrowing money.  There are resources in every state of the federation and the governors will do well to look inwards and see what they can do to generate income rather than depending on oil revenue,” he further stated.

In his remarks, Governor Suswam disclosed that the plant was built five years ago by the state government,”But after the construction we didn’t know what to do with it. We don’t have the management ability to run it. We contacted different investors until I talked to transcorp.

”This project will do a lot for the economy of the state.  The state is the food basket of this nation. There is a lot Benue can do for this country and Africa. The Minister of Agriculture can testify to the fact that Benue is where all the agricultural development money should be invested.