Developing Akwa Ibom State

Located in the coastal Southern part of Nigeria, Akwa Ibom State sits on large deposit of oil and gas resources both onshore and offshore. CNBC Africa’s Wole
Famurewa discussed the state’s development plans and investment opportunities in the state with its Governor Udom Emmanuel.

It is a difficult time for not just Federal but state governments, the IMF recently forecast that the economy is likely to contract by 1.8 percent. Help us appreciate what Akwa Ibom state is going through, as I think it speaks to what the rest of Nigeria is going through right now.
EMMANUEL: The downward trend in all the economic indices that could show growth, better welfare of people, investment opportunities, all indices you can think of, is not only in Nigeria but to be specific, I think we are really affected, knowing fully well that we are largest producer of crude oil in this country today and that is our source of revenue.

This is a state that the expenditure pattern was based on crude oil price at more than a hundred dollars per barrel now struggling with below and above thirty and forty dollars per barrel which is not stable and cannot be planned with. You have to understand that once the mainstream of the economy is stimulated even the internally generated revenue (IGR) cannot flow based on your plan so the basis of the IGR is pay as you earn (P.A.Y.E). People are not earning any longer, banks, oil companies, so many private organisations are retrenching so how would you pay on what they have not earned, it becomes a problem even some of the private enterprises that fall under this category, and you feel depressed to go to them because you know they are not doing well.

When you look at these and the revenue that is coming in, it is almost a miracle that a state like ours is able to pay salaries, pensions of civil servants, be able to intervene on monthly basis on what is happening in the local government area and it is also difficult to recreate the mind-sets of people who are used to having it rosy and all of a sudden, things have changed, so you have to struggle with a lot of things but as the government, you must always rise above the challenges.

In terms of strategy, can you speak to how your government is dealing with the realities of the day?
EMMANUEL: Talking about strategy, you look at what can help boost the economy of the state which would flow from the Country, you need to borrow something, looking at the nations of the world, no nation that stood on its own today is called a developed nation, so many of them are lot of inflows from Africa; so we need to look at who to partner with and how to partner with them and what do they require to partner with you? We have a whole lot of human resources but we have problems with technology. Every key investor that wants to partner with you will look at three key areas, first is security, second is maintainable or reliable infrastructure and third is transparent and consistent legislature- this you don’t control at the state level; you only look at how to make your state a little bit conducive for businesses to be located and to grow. A lot of that consistent legislature would flow from the federal government.

You must do the other two a little bit extra to actually attract them so the third would not weigh too much. Investment is like a growing bill, there is a conducive environment for it to grow, you must look at it, is the Governor investment friendly? Are they still bugged down by those bottle necks? In our state, we had to look at the three getaways which will attract people to come to us which are road, air and water. We have one of the most reliable road networks in this Country, our airport runway is still being developed, we are currently developing a taxi way, that if there is any emergency on the runway, you can at least land a Boeing 737 without any problem, at the same time, we have the longest shoreline in the Country, 129 Kilometres, everywhere in the world, water is wealth, you turn water into wealth.

Our whole bulk of consumption in Nigeria is through water which cannot be ignored. If you want to be bugged down by the civil service structure which cannot be changed overnight, you would not move at your pace, so to address these issues, we came up with technical committees for the various ministries and sectors and these committees are headed by very experienced persons, we also set up the IBOM deep-sea port technical committee due to our shoreline headed by a former DG of NIMASA. We put the right persons to tackle the key issues and bring out the best positions that could give any foreign investor that comfort to relate with us. They come with acceleration and speed in doing business.

What would you say that your state has as a competitive advantage? Agriculture or is there more to it?
EMMANUEL: Our state is blessed all round, any of those key areas you mention, we have a competitive advantage. Speaking of Agriculture, we can plant all-round the year as we have very good soil and climatic conditions. There are areas where farmers have planted over years without having to use fertilizers because whatever is planted naturally comes out with a bumper harvest.