There are around 6 million people living in the Benue State, which is geographically in north-central Nigeria. The Benue State, a woody savanna region, is bordered on the south by the states of Cross River, Ebonyi, and Enugu, on the west by the state of Kogi, on the north by the state of Nassawara, and to the northeast by the state of Taraba. The Benue River marks the western part of Benue’s northern boundary; to the southeast, it has a shared border of fewer than 25 miles (40 km) with Cameroon, where the Mokamoun River rises in the highlands of that nation.
The Tiv (the biggest tribe in the state), the Idoma, and a few other minor tribes make up the ethnic groupings; all are primarily agricultural peoples. As the nation’s primary producer of sesame seed, soybeans, shea nuts, cotton, yams, corn (maize), and rice, Benue State is renowned as Nigeria’s food basket. As staple foods, we have cassava, peanuts (groundnuts), yams, sorghum, millet, and peanuts.
In terms of agricultural diversity, Benue State leads Nigeria and produces more soybeans, mangoes, citrus fruits, roots, and tubers than any other state.
Nevertheless, it is far from operating at maximum capacity. Benue’s farmers have the capacity to feed the whole nation of Nigeria, but they lack the necessary infrastructure, funding, education, know-how, legal framework, and other resources to produce at that level.
In a few isolated locations, mining has the potential to grow. South of the Benue river, lead reserves are close to Akwana, while limestone deposits are close to Yandev.
North of the river, the Benue valley contains major tin, niobium, and marble deposits.
The two largest cities in Benue are Makurdi (the state capital), which serves as the Benue river’s main port, and Oturkpo. Katsina-Ala and Gboko, which have a cement plant, are significant market cities.
Backbone Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (BINL) wants to invest funds to help the state of Benue further develop agriculture, through large-scale mechanization and local processing facilities for its agricultural goods.
The capital of Benue State, Makurdi, will be connected to the Route 1, 2, 3, and 6 corridors by the rail and road infrastructure.
Additionally, a stable energy supply, and fibre optical telecommunications will be delivered to the Beacon City in Obagaji.
The growth of the state of Benue would be considerably aided by the construction of a new international airport.
With its rail connection to Route 1, a complex of agricultural goods processing facilities next to the FTZ and dry-port at the Benue State International Airport would allow quick export of processed food to the deep seaports of Ibaka (Akwa-Ibom) and Ilaje (Ondo State).
The brand-new Makurdi International Airport will allow for the timely supply of perishable fresh items abroad via air freight.
With the use of tamper-proof machine-readable codes, secure produce, producer, seller, shipment-logistics, and buyer detail labelling will provide supply-chain monitoring capability at every step to the final client’s or end-users’ destination while providing real-time goods shipment monitoring for humidity, temperature, and other parameters, including alarm level management, to both seller and buyer, respectively.