Mr. Kenneth O. Okpara was until recently a consultant with the World Bank from where he was appointed into the Delta State cabinet to handle the Economic Planning/ Development portfolio. In this interview, Mr. Okpara expresses himself on how he intends to bring his wealth of experience in the realization of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s vision. Excerpts:

HOW did you receive news of your appointment?

There is no honour or recognition that is greater than when your community, State, and Country call upon you to serve. Apart from this, I have a strong desire to see my State and country develop and bring improvements to the lives of the people. Seeing myself as part of the team in Delta State to make this happen, brings a sense of fulfillment and joy to my heart. I believe it is going to be very challenging, but it is also going to be interesting.

What are your plans for a sound economic base for Delta State?

Let me start by recognizing and commending the ingenuity of the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, for considering people like me in his team. What I will do is to give him support in the implementation of his policies, which would be mainly derived from his electoral promises.

However, the aspects where I intend to make a difference are on the improvements of the policy making process, determining strategic priorities and driving implementation for results. In formulating strategies to achieve our objectives, we will draw from Michael Porter’s value chain model and other models. The variant of Michael Porter’s model to be applied is the one meant for Government services.

Research indicates that this has been used by most development agencies to achieve great results in Government service delivery. I have worked extensively in Asia for the World Bank, I have researched as part of my London Cambridge University EMBA, on how countries like China and India became successful emerging market economies and key players in the BRICS and the world today.

Okpara

My experience and research indicates that Delta State has similar resources, part of what made the difference for China and India is the will of the people and the leadership to turn its resources into successful economies. I believe we also have the capabilities to do same.

In what way can Delta state benefit from the World Bank?

The World Bank, just like other development agencies, usually gravitates to where the enabling environments are in place, one of such is reform for good governance. The Delta State Governor has indicated and is currently on track to implement reform in the State. The World Bank is already supporting the State through technical and financial assistance, but with the Governor’s actions, the level of support will increase.

The World Bank in giving assistance will rely on the State’s strategic priorities as derived from the policies. Hence, if the State wants assistance in critical infrastructure or rural development, the World Bank will assess the proposal and if okay will give approval accordingly.

The World Bank assistance may be in the form of grants or credits, grants are not repayable, however, credits are repayable, but are without interest charges. I sincerely believe that the Governor is fully committed to reform, if this process is sustained, it will open a flood gate of development partners’ (not only World Bank) support to the State but will also attract more foreign investors.

What is your view on the second coming of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala as Nigeria’s Finance Minister?

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is my boss, both at the World Bank and now in Nigeria, so, forgive me if I appear to be biased, but I will try to be as objective as I can. She is not coming in only as Finance Minister, but also responsible for coordinating the economy and that makes a lot of difference.

The difference this brings is that she will be the arrow head of the team that will determine the nation’s strategic priorities, and this has great implication on driving the nation’s economic growth. One critical point to emphasize is that we will all benefit from the lessons learnt from her first appointment as Finance Minister and Foreign Minister.

In addition, she has a pattern of success, she is known world-wide, and she has the clout to attract Foreign Direct Investments to Nigeria. Citigroup predicted that real gross domestic product will grow more than 9% a year in Nigeria and India, and more than 7% in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Egypt over the next two decades. This will only be possible if we have credible people like Dr. Okonjo-Iweala driving our economy.