Benue State approves a $250 million (₦378 billion) agro-industrial Food City Complex under a 25-year PPP with REXZONDENEH Group, covering 30,000 hectares and marking the state's first-ever executed PPP in 50 years.
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Makurdi, Benue State — September 4, 2026
The Benue State Government has approved a $250 million National Food City Complex expected to create more than 15,000 jobs and integrate approximately 40,000 farmers into a large-scale agricultural production and processing network.
The ₦378 billion agro-industrial project will be implemented under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with REXZONDENEH Group Limited (RGL), covering 30,000 hectares across three local government areas, including Otukpo and Ado. Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Chief Solomon Iorpev, disclosed the decision following the State Executive Council meeting, describing the investment as a boost to the state's agriculture and industrialisation agenda that would also contribute to national food security.
Executive Secretary of the Benue Investment Promotion Agency (BIPA), Dr. JohnPaul Kpenkaan, said the project would establish an agro-industrial park where agricultural commodities are processed into finished products for both domestic consumption and export. He said the initiative is expected to generate more than 15,000 direct and value-chain jobs, while mobilising about 40,000 farmers to supply rice, cassava, maize, and other commodities, including raw materials for livestock feed.
"The 30,000-hectare project covers three local government areas of Otukpo, Ado and another. For now, implementation is beginning primarily in Otukpo, where the first 12,000 hectares will be developed," Kpenkaan said. He disclosed that the project will operate under a 25-year concession arrangement, with the state government retaining a 10 percent equity stake, and full ownership reverting to the state once the concession expires.
Kpenkaan described the deal as a milestone for the state's investment climate: "This becomes the first significant public-private partnership project in the 50-year history of the state to move from a Memorandum of Understanding into an executable agreement." He credited the breakthrough to Governor Hyacinth Alia's efforts to improve the state's ease of doing business and build an environment attractive to private investment.
According to Kpenkaan, the initiative forms part of the Federal Government's national food security programme, which has been approved for implementation across six pilot states with Benue the first to move forward with implementation. He said Governor Alia has directed the investors to visit the state on Friday for the formal signing of the agreement.
The approval lands at a striking moment for Benue's broader land-use politics, coming just weeks after the state's fierce, multi-front rejection of the Federal Government's proposed ranching pilot on the grounds of protecting farmland and displaced communities' land rights.
Unlike the ranching proposal, the Food City Complex is framed explicitly around expanding crop farming and agro-processing capacity for Benue's existing farming population, a distinction likely to shape how the project is received by the same civil society, religious, and professional groups that mobilised against the ranching plan.
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