NB Plc to invest N15b on new lines at Aba

NIGERIAN Breweries  (NB) Plc, has earmarked the sum of 78 million euros (about N15 billion) for the construction of new brewing house and can line in Aba, Abia State.
This was disclosed by the Brewery Manager, NB Plc, Aba branch, Ukeje Udah, during a courtesy visit to the state Governor, Theodore Orji, recently.
Udah said Abia State was considered to be the safest state in the country, where such investment could be made.
When fully on stream, the new brewing house and the canning line will offer employment opportunities to youths, as well as, create other direct and indirect jobs  for the people of the state, even as it had intervened in other states’ economic sectors.
He, however, remarked that the Aba Brewery that came into being in 1957 was affected by the civil war and thanked the governor for providing businesses in the state including the conducive operating environment in addition to ensuring adequate security, which he said, at a point became their greatest challenge.
“If the criminals had over taken the state most of us would have lost our jobs, thank you sir for saving our jobs,” he said.
Udah noted that the present administration has been doing a lot in the area of road construction especially in Aba, “those of us, who live and operate in that commercial city know what your government has been doing, since we work and live in that place.”
According to him, NB Plc has been fulfilling its social responsibility gestures in the state, such as sponsoring of various sporting events, building and donating school blocks and invited the governor to commission the new six classroom and library block the brewery has built at Ahiaba in Obingwa LGA.
Apparently elated by the giant strides recorded by NB Plc, the governor beckoned on it to consider acquiring the Umuahia based Golden Guinea Breweries Plc that has been distressed over the years and expressed the state’s gratitude for their contributions to its (state) development indicating that he will want to personally commission the  said classroom and library block.
“We have the moribund Golden Guinea brewery in Umuahia, You can start brewing your famous Heineken beer there, what we want is a group that will reactivate it.”