…Continues from yesterday.
Substantial resources will be devoted to these projects, both from government and the private sector partnering with us. As these projects take shape, Your Excellency will be briefed and hopefully will find the time to visit us and be part of its progress and success story.

The Asaba Airport should be ready by end of the year and we trust Mr. President will accept our request to commission this airport, which should be one of the best in the country.

“Mr. President Sir, I take pride in stating that in terms of highway, urban and rural roads development, drainage schemes, and waterways structures, our record is impressive.

A few samplers will demonstrate this. We have completed over 483.67km of trunk roads, more than 93.55km of urban and township roads and awarded additional contracts for the construction of another 51.52km of urban and rural roads.

In the same vein, 669.02km of drainage works are under construction in various parts of the state, out of which 424.79km have been completed. I might even add with due modesty that Delta State has some of the best road network in the country.

“As spectacular as these projects are, we see huge benefits in expanding our infrastructure base further, which is why we have undertaken even more massive road projects like the dualisation of the 148.9km long Ughelli-Asaba, which is a federal road, currently under construction.

Businesses will gain enormously from this road because it will make movement to and from the port in Warri to the commercial nerve centres of Onitsha and Nnewi, faster and easier.  Moreover, it will improve the linkage of Warri and Asaba, the two main economic hubs of the state.

The other is the Ugbenu-Koko Road, which is intended to improve traffic to the Export Processing Zone. All of these projects on completion have the potential to employ thousands of Deltans. At the present time through direct government and its agencies, over 15,000 Deltans have been employed”, he said.

Warri port bounces back to life “Our efforts at awakening public interest in the utilization of Delta Ports are already yielding results.  The Port in Warri has risen to number two in the country after Lagos, in terms of cargo handling.

This is a major fruit of the peace and security agenda of this administration. The dredging of the Escravos break waters by the Nigerian Ports Authority is still being awaited as this will no doubt boost both traffic and greater utilization of the Delta Ports, because it will enable bigger ships to berth in the port at Warri. Mr President’s intervention will be most decisive in getting Nigeria Ports Authority to act”.

Street light spectacle

The street light in the state capital, Asaba, Warri, Effurun and other parts of the state for which the Governor had been buffeted by some critics in the state was a subject of praise for the Governor by the President and other Governors who came for the reception at Asaba.

According to Uduaghan, “ In the last three years, I am happy to inform you, Mr. President that we have carried out several urban renewal schemes with the installation of street lights, sanitation and beautification of our major cities. Our street light is spread across 275 kilometres of the state. It is a mixed system of solar and conventional. Solar powered street lights covers 120 kilometres of this spread.

From this alone our cities have become more attractive and more secured for us as a people as well as to visitors, particularly, tourists and investors. And that is why this year, we are expanding coverage to a further 180 kilometres of the state”.

How the state is tackling energy problem

The Governor said,  “In laying our vision, it is clear we desire to build a world class economy.

However, our frustration which is not peculiar to Delta State but indeed a national issue, is the challenge of power supply. Delta State has a power demand of 1000MW out of which 100MW is available from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria. This is highly inadequate.

To boost power distribution within our state, we have embarked on the phased construction of the Delta State power grid transmission line from the Delta IV power station at Ekakpamre to Ogwashi-Uku.

We have also completed 200 out of 350 on-going electricity projects, involving the construction and installation of 300 KVA, 33/11KV transformer substations and 7.5MVA, 33/11KV transformer substations with accompanying overhead low tension lines.”

“To find a more permanent solution to the state’s energy problem, we have initiated an independent integrated approach to provide uninterrupted power to all nooks and crannies of the state. Our aspiration in the energy sector, which embraces generation, transmission and distribution, is to establish independent power plants through private public partnership.

The programme is anchored on the vast gas resources in the state. Consequently, the state government has commenced action on the construction of its own small scale power plant that will generate 120MW of electricity. Furthermore, we are in talks with International Energy Agency, IEA, a multilateral agency based in Paris, to conduct an energy mix report on renewable energy options that will guarantee energy security and energy efficiency for the state.

That report should be ready in months. We are also hopeful that when the NIPP comes on stream, our power needs will be further addressed. As you will recall Mr President, Delta State government has contributed N 15 billion to this project.

Happily, the zeal, which you, Mr. President, have brought to bear on this challenge, gives us confidence that the power crisis will be solved in no time”, he said.

How Delta is addressing poverty, agriculture
“Now I come to an event in which I have shared some spotlight with Mr. President, and it is the recognition we received for addressing rural poverty and economic marginalization of the poor through the Delta State Micro-credit scheme.

This programme was launched in 2007, but it has achieved so much in the short time of its existence. Over 50,000 Deltans have become micro-entrepreneurs from the programme, and a tenth of this number is scaling up to small business enterprise owners.

This is just a small proportion of those who earnestly desire to be covered, so this year fired by the passion of our people for this programme, we have budgeted N1.5 billion.

As a testimony to the success, we have made, the Central Bank of Nigeria selected Delta State as the Year 2008 and 2009 Best Micro Credit financing State.

On both occasion, Mr. President handed the trophy to us. I want to assure Mr.  President, that we are unrelenting in our fight to end the poverty of our people, and to give them the opportunity to be wealth creators. And not to be overlooked, win the CBN award yet again.

“Agriculture, no doubt, remains the dominant enterprise of our people. Our agricultural policy is directed towards the attainment of food sufficiency and security, including job creation and wealth generation.