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From Joseph Obukata, Warri
As Nigeria grapples with challenges of dwindling revenue, the Delta State government has said it was fine-tuning strategies to grow its foreign direct investment portfolios to beat the National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) forecast in 2024 and generally grow the economy.
Sunny Ofehe, the Executive Assistant on External Relations and Diaspora Affairs to the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, made the disclosure during a recent interview with Daily Sun.
According to him, the governor was taking deliberate fiscal measures to make the state an investment-friendly space for potential foreign and local investors.
He added that the state was addressing critical challenges like decrepit infrastructure and insecurity; as well as initiating fiscal policies to enhance the ease of doing business.
According to him, the state government devoted almost 60 percent of the 2024 budget of N725 billion to infrastructure renewal, particularly the construction of access roads, major expansion and fly-overs across the major cities.
His Excellency, the Governor has also taken security as one of his major priority, meeting regularly with all the major security stakeholders in the state and providing the needed support and encouragement for effective discharge of their duties.
“For the first time the government is focused, improving the ease of doing business so that we can attract domestic and foreign direct investments, and improve productivity while sustaining the growth of our domestic economy. Remember that since the commencement of this administration in the last six months, there has not been a single borrowing”.
He said in the past seven months of the new administration, Governor Oborevwori has made his intention to build infrastructure known with the N78 billion flyover and road expansion project in Warri/Effurun area being handled by renowned construction giants, Julius Berger.
Ofehe maintained that Delta has other potentials for investors to tap into, noting that the state government investment drive goes beyond meeting Nigerians in diaspora but “we are going to sell Delta State to the global community at large. Delta State is very easy to sell.
“So we have all the abundant natural and mineral resources, even solid minerals to be precise, and in addition to that, we have high human capital development in the state because we pride ourselves as the state with the highest tertiary institutions in this country. So selling Delta State is as easy as selling anything that is good, and that is why we want to take a different approach this time around and look into how we can showcase Delta State beyond the crude oil that we are generally known for”.
“Delta State is a name that’s synonymous with investors across the world. Delta State has the capacity to become the seventh-largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa. We are surely driving in that direction. We have a governor right now who is listening.
According to him, most of the foreign direct investment potential that the government will bring to Delta State will be like a pilot that will showcase itself for other states to follow.
“The target is for us to ensure that before the end of next year 2024, we will outgrow the 1.1 million dollars that you or NBS said are the highest we could bring in 2022. Our target is to grow that, and we are working toward that. We are definitely going to improve on that because Investors are coming in from all sectors.
“I have assured my governor that my office alone can attract in one year on a minimum amount of 1 billion dollars in foreign direct investment. I will be in touch with you when we begin to develop this from my office. The secretary to the state government has been engaging foreign investors in the state, so what we will first of all do is create an opening for engagement, which the government is already doing right now, and then we will also structure some possible external visits for the governor to go out there.
“For instance, we are arranging for him to visit Suriname, a Caribbean country, so that we can seek some collaboration that can help in our aviation sector, that can help in the agricultural sector, and most importantly, create a diplomatic relationship between both countries. Once we are able to do that, there is possibility that, through that, we can access the 1.5 billion dollars that are available from the Africa Import and Export Bank to encourage economic corporation between African countries and Caribbean (CARICUM) countries. so we want to leverage that.
“The first thing you need to do is understand the lines that are open for this investments and to even surprise you, what we are doing with our foreign direct investment flow capacity is targeting international companies that will also come with their export credit, so it will not be a financial liability on our state.
“In some cases, we can agree on counterpart funding, but our counterpart funding portfolio can also come not in the form of money but that we can provide for the investor, such as land, labor and access to licensing, and all of that. So this is what we are actually working toward, and I am very confident that before the end of next year, NBS will make another review of what they have out there for Delta State, and there will be a remarkable improvement on that on the next figure that will be released, he enthused.
