Anambra Has Over 1 Billion Barrels Of Oil & 30 Trillion Cubic Ft Of Gas - Obiano

Speech delivered by His Excellency, Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State in a ... with journalists and investors at an event tagged "An #EveningWithObiano"

"Our objective is to become one of the top 3 industrialized states in Nigeria. We are pursuing this in four key areas – Creation of modern Industrial Parks and Small-to-medium Enterprise Clusters, Improved Drive for Investment and better Access to Financing and Strategic Capacity Building.

Today, we have so far attracted over $140 million of investment to the manufacturing sector. Ndi be anyi, odi ofele?

Next on my Economic Pillar is Trade & Commerce

Our objective in Trade and Commerce is to move Anambra to the Top-3 states in Trade and Commerce in Nigeria. To achieve this, we are rehabilitating our existing markets and building new ones alongside ultramodern shopping malls across the state.

Here are some of our key achievements in the past two years:

We commissioned the ultramodern Onitsha Shopping Mall in April this year to give our people a taste of a world class shopping experience. The Mall is one of the Continuity Projects I inherited from my predecessor which I have commissioned as I promised during my campaign days. Ana ekwu ekwu, ana eme eme!

Work is progressing smoothly on the two other malls in Nnewi and Awka at the moment. We have flagged off the construction of a $350 million wholesale shopping complex in Ogbunike in Oyi LGA. This commercial and lifestyle complex will be the first of its kind in Africa. The retail outlets will be operated by leading brands from across the world. Similarly, the 1st Phase of the 20,000-unit International Market at Oba in Idemili South Local Government Area valued at $75 million dollars is nearing completion while Expression of Interest has been concluded on the Umunze International Market.

The fourth Economic Pillar is Oil & Gas

Anambra State is blessed with over one billion barrels of oil and 30 trillion cubic feet of gas. Our target is to have a fully developed Oil & Gas sector by 2018. We intend to achieve this through 3 broad areas of intervention – policy formulation & infrastructure development, private sector participation and community re-orientation.

In the area of Policy Formulation, we have crafted far-sighted policies to drive the development of this sector. In fact, my bill proposing the establishment of the Anambra State Oil & Gas Development Agency has already been passed into law.

As a follow up, we have also set up the Oil and Gas Advisory Committee headed by Dr. Emmanuel Egboga, the former Special Adviser to the President on Petroleum Matters. This committee is charged with drafting a comprehensive Blueprint for the Oil & Gas sector and advising the State on the necessary steps that would ensure the recognition of Anambra as the 10th Oil Producing State in Nigeria.

We have opened access to the oil fields by building Anambra’s longest bridge across the Omambala River in Aguleri. The bridge is 280 meter long and the road is 42KM. This bridge has since been completed.

We are also building two other bridges to the oil fields through Umueje in Ayamelum and Umudiora in Anambra West Local Government Areas.

The importance of these roads and bridges can only be understood if we remember that there was no access to the oilfields of Aguleri before now from Anambra State. It could only be accessed through Enugu State.

Similarly, we have concluded plans to pipe ATK (aviation fuel) from the Orient Petroleum Refinery to the proposed cargo Airport in Umueri where a storage facility will be built for it. The idea is for the airport to serve as a major hub for the re-fuelling of international flights in West Africa.

We have since flagged off the construction of three dual-carriage ways that will open up access to the proposed airport from three strategic directions – Umueri, Awkuzu and Nteje axis." - Willie Obiano, Governor of Anambra State