Oborevwori’s N5bn lifeline for Delta’s grassroots economy

By Simon Akpoki

Economic recovery is often discussed in the language of budgets, interest rates, inflation, investments and government revenues. But for the ordinary citizen, economic recovery has a much simpler meaning: having enough money to meet basic needs, keep a small business running, employ someone, buy goods and services and plan for tomorrow.

It is against this background that the economic interventions of the Delta State Government under Governor Sheriff Oborevwori deserve to be viewed.

At the heart of the administration’s current strategy is an understanding that economic growth cannot be sustained if purchasing power remains weak at the grassroots. Businesses need customers. Traders need buyers. Artisans need patronage. Small enterprises need working capital. Communities need money circulating within them.

This explains the significance of the claim by the State Commissioner for Works (Rural Roads) and Public Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, that the administration’s empowerment initiatives are designed to inject about N5 billion directly into the grassroots economy.

Speaking at a press briefing in Asaba, Aniagwu said the government’s economic reforms and empowerment programmes were targeted at strengthening purchasing power, stimulating economic activity and ensuring that the benefits of government policies reached ordinary residents, particularly low-income earners and operators of nano businesses.

The scale of the initiative is what makes it particularly noteworthy. According to the commissioner, councillors across the state have been directed to empower 200 persons in their respective wards. With about 500 wards, the initiative is projected to reach at least 100,000 people.

The immediate beneficiaries may be individuals and small businesses, but the economic impact is expected to go beyond them. When a low-income resident receives support and uses it to expand a petty trade, purchase equipment, replenish stock or provide a service, the money does not necessarily stop with that individual. It moves to suppliers, transporters, artisans, markets and other service providers.

That is the basic logic behind stimulating an economy from the bottom. Rather than concentrating economic interventions exclusively in major urban centres, the Delta Government is seeking to put purchasing power into the hands of people who live and trade within local communities.

For a state with a substantial rural population and numerous small businesses operating outside the formal corporate economy, that approach has important implications.

The nano-business owner is often invisible in conventional economic statistics, yet such operators form an important part of everyday economic life. They run small shops, food businesses, repair services, farms, transportation activities, fashion enterprises and other ventures that provide livelihoods for families and services for communities.

A relatively modest injection of capital can therefore make a significant difference to the survival or expansion of such enterprises. The N5 billion figure becomes even more interesting when considered alongside additional interventions from political and community leaders.

Aniagwu cited Ika North-East as an example, where leaders contributed at least N5 million in each federal ward, resulting in an additional injection of about N70 million into the local economy alongside the funds provided by councillors.

This illustrates another dimension of the strategy: government intervention can serve as a catalyst for broader community participation. The objective is not simply to distribute money. It is to increase economic activity. That distinction matters.

If purchasing power improves, businesses have a larger pool of potential customers. If businesses sell more, they are better positioned to retain workers or expand. If more enterprises become viable, local economic activity increases. And as economic activity expands, communities become more attractive to investors.

This is the economic argument Aniagwu advanced when he said strengthening purchasing power was critical to attracting and retaining investments.

Investors, he noted, often prefer urban centres because of their relatively higher purchasing power. Improving the economic capacity of rural communities could therefore help spread investment and business opportunities beyond the traditional urban centres.

In other words, the government is attempting to address both sides of the investment equation. Investment needs infrastructure and a conducive business environment, but it also needs consumers who can afford to buy what businesses produce.

This makes the purchasing-power strategy an important complement to infrastructure and broader economic reforms. There is also a direct connection between the grassroots intervention and the wider financial management of the state.

Aniagwu pointed to the administration’s ability to mobilise contractors up to 40 per cent, pay workers’ salaries and emoluments between the 22nd and 25th of every month, and ensure that pensioners no longer queue at Government House for payment.

These developments, according to the commissioner, are linked to reforms aimed at strengthening the state’s financial position and ensuring prudent management of resources. The significance goes beyond government accounting.

When workers receive salaries consistently, they spend. When pensioners receive their entitlements without prolonged delays, they spend. When contractors receive mobilisation, projects can commence or progress. When economic actors receive payments, money enters the wider economy.

Government expenditure can therefore become an important channel through which purchasing power is transmitted into communities. The administration’s intervention in the education sector provides another example.

Aniagwu highlighted what he described as the stability of academic activities in Delta-owned universities, linking the improved financial situation to a more stable academic calendar. For students and families, the value of a stable academic calendar goes beyond the classroom. It provides predictability, reduces disruptions and helps students progress through their programmes without unnecessary uncertainty.

It is another illustration of the administration’s broader argument that financial reforms ultimately have human consequences. The same logic is behind the recently passed 13th-month salary bill.

Aniagwu commended the Delta State House of Assembly for expediting consideration of the executive bill, which, once assented to by the governor, would institutionalise payment of a 13th-month salary to civil servants.

Whatever the final economic impact of such a measure, its stated objective is straightforward: put additional purchasing power into the hands of workers. And when workers have more disposable income, the expectation is that a portion of that money will return to the economy through consumption.

This is why the commissioner described the 13th-month salary and other interventions as more than election-related measures. He presented them as components of a wider strategy to stimulate consumption, ease household pressures, support businesses and create conditions capable of attracting investment.

That framing is important in understanding the administration’s economic philosophy.

The central idea is that the government must not only pursue large-scale infrastructure and institutional reforms; it must also create conditions in which ordinary people can participate in economic activity.

The roads and bridges being constructed across communities, for instance, have an economic purpose beyond transportation. Better connectivity can reduce travel time, facilitate movement of agricultural produce, connect rural producers to markets and improve access to economic opportunities.

Similarly, empowerment programmes can only achieve their full potential when they are connected to functioning markets, infrastructure, skills and a broader environment that encourages enterprise.

This is where the various strands of the Oborevwori administration’s economic agenda intersect. Grassroots empowerment puts purchasing power into communities. Regular salary payments support household consumption. Contractor mobilisation supports project execution and economic activity. Education stability protects human capital development. The 13th-month salary initiative seeks to provide additional income to workers.

• Akpoki writes from Agbor, Delta State