COLLABORATION THROUGH PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (PPP) TO HARNESS THE INVESTMENT POTENTIALS OF DELTA STATE FOR ACCELERATED GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT – SPEECH DELIVERED AS GUEST SPEAKER AT DACCIMA 12TH AGM AND INVESTITURE CEREMONY BY OLOROGUN LUCKY OGHENE-OMORU JP, CHAIRMAN OF DELTA STATE INVESTMENTS DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (DIDA) ON THURSDAY 27TH FEBRUARY, 2025
PROTOCOL / SALUTATION
INTRODUCTION
I wish to thank DACCIMA for inviting me as Guest Speaker at this 12th edition of DACCIMA’S Annual General Meeting and Investiture Ceremony taking place at Asaba, today. I have been given the liberty to speak on any topic regarding the theme – Driving Excellence through Collaboration and Innovation: A Pathway to Sustainable Growth. Consequently, I have elected to speak on the topic: Collaboration through Public Private Partnership (PPP) to Harness the Investment Potentials of Delta State for Accelerated Growth and Development.
For clarity, I chose to organize this speech as hereunder: Macro-economic framework and Investment opportunities in Delta State, Institutional arrangement to promote investments in Delta State, Public Private Partnership framework, Investment Aftercare and Ease of Doing Business in Delta State, and the MORE Agenda and Accelerated Growth and Development of Delta State.
MACRO-ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK AND INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Delta State has the estimated population of 6.4 million (2022), land area of 18,050 sq. km, Atlantic Ocean coastline stretching to 163 km, and its strategic location as gateway to the south-east and south-south regions of Nigeria. Delta State is among the most economically endowed in the country.
The State’s abundant investment opportunities are enhanced by its natural resources endowments comprising about 40% of Nigeria’s natural gas and 30% of Nigeria’s crude oil reserves. As a result, the state is a topmost contributor to Nigeria’s energy economy and national revenues. Delta State has diverse geographical conditions that enable the cultivation of wide variety of crops.
According to a study published by the Oxford Business Group in their year 2024 Report, Delta State has the third-largest economy in Nigeria, accounting for about 21.5% of the country’s oil output as of March 2023. While its revenue is predicated mostly on oil and gas proceeds, the state has seen an expansion in other areas of the economy, with the non-oil and gas sector accounting for 52.5% of GDP in 2020 due to recent economic diversification, compared to 41.9% in 2013. As a result, the State’s primary growth potential is in agri-business, light manufacturing, health care, tourism, energy and mining. In view of the competing requirements for government funding, collaboration between the state government and private sector through the instrumentality of PPP, would facilitate rapid growth and development of the state.
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT TO PROMOTE INVESTMENTS IN DELTA STATE
Delta State Investments Development Agency (DIDA) was established through the Delta State Investments Development Agency Law (2016) to promote, develop and regulate all investments and concessions in the state. DIDA started operations in June 2017. The Agency’s operational strategy is to harness available natural resources to promote inflow of investments, diversify the economy away from over-dependence on petroleum revenues, generate employment and create wealth in line with the MORE Agenda of the present administration. The key objectives of DIDA are as follows:
Promote and coordinate increased private sector investments in the state.
Promote viable projects and Create conducive environment for investors.
Create Public Private Partnerships between Delta State Government and the private sector.
Establish mechanisms to protect private sector investments.
Administer, Regulate and Protect Concessions.
PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FRAMEWORK
Public-private partnerships involve collaboration between the state government and a private sector investor that can be used to finance, build, and operate projects, such as infrastructural facilities, industrial, commercial and agricultural investments, social sector projects like educational and health facilities, etc. Financing a project through a public-private partnership can allow a project to be completed sooner or make it to be more feasible, viable and sustainable. The following are just a few variants of PPP:
Build Operate Transfer (BOT): Government hands overall construction and operations to a private Investor for a set number of years. After the agreed period of time, it is transferred to the government.
Build Operate Own (BOO): The same as a BOT, but the private entity is not required to ever transfer the project to the government.
Design-Build (DB): Government contracts with a private party to design and construct a project for a fee. The government retains ownership and may either operate it itself or contract out operations.
Buy Build Operate (BBO): Government sells a pre-existing project that has already been completed and may have been operated by the government for some time to a private party, who will take it over fully. The private party may need to invest in rehabilitating or expanding the project.
Concession: Government cedes its Asset to a Private Investor to operate for agreed number of years during which period the Concessionaire provides mandatory capital projects to enhance the scope and viability of the asset, while making payments to Government for the use of the assets.
PPP can be justified on the basis that government resources alone are inadequate to meet the competing needs of the citizenry, namely: education, health, security of life and property and provision of infrastructural facilities, etc to drive socio-economic growth and development. Private Sector capital is therefore needed to augment government investment. However, the following are some of the benefits of PPP investments:
Special Skills needed – The process of manufacture, production or provision of the products/ services involve skills / expertise that are found in the private sector but not readily available in the public sector.
Availability – The products/ services will become more readily available, in the market, with private sector participation.
Accessibility – The products/ services will become more readily accessible, geographically to the citizens with private sector participation.
Affordability – With many private sector entrepreneurs’ participation, there would be economies of large scale in production, and prices would become more competitive.
Finally, PPP can help governments raise capital, leverage the private sector’s expertise and efficiency, help governments address development needs and allocate risk between the public and private sectors.
6.0 INVESTMENT AFTERCARE AND EASE OF DOING BUSINESS IN DELTA STATE
PPP may lead to the establishment of many investment projects with the businesses promoting their products and creating value for their Shareholders. Typically, investors focus principally on their market share and profits and may not have the financial resources to invest in infrastructural facilities such that the absence of these facilities may actually hamper their operations. There is, therefore, the need for the state government to create the enabling environment for the businesses to thrive by providing conducive operating environment and reducing the cost of doing business. This also involves Investment Aftercare which comprises government’s administrative actions, policies and programmes to address the challenges faced by businesses in areas such as taxation, levies, harassment by the youth, host communities, law enforcement agencies, etc. In this way, more investors will be attracted.
In Delta State, investment aftercare is being provided through various administrative policies / programmers by government and establishing One Stop Shop Agency in Delta State Investments development Agency to look after the operational welfare of investors, while promoting Ease of Doing Business (EODB) in the State. The following are some the actions being taking to promote EODB in Delta State.
i. Automated Central Billing System of taxes and levies.
ii. Speeding up of Registration of Land and Property Title deed.
iii. Facilitation of Access to Land through the State Land Acquisition Committee
iv. Agricultural Value Chain Development through Agricultural Marketing Coordination Mechanism (AMCM).
v. Provision of Critical Infrastructure (Good road network, Airports, Power, Water, Hospitals)
vi. Development of Agro-Industrial Parks for reduced cost of Doing
Business.
vii. Entrepreneurship Capacity Building for Provision of Skilled labour
Employment Generation and Wealth Creation.
viii. Enhancement of MSMEs Access to Credit through Delta State
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency
(DSMSDA).
ix. Improvement in Enforcing Contracts and Alternative Dispute
Resolution Mechanism.
x. Consumer Protection Committee to promote Consumer Awareness
xi. Improved Security, Law and Order through the State Security Committee under the Chairmanship of the State Governor.
xii. The Delta State Anti-Kidnapping Law 2016
xiii. Delta State Land and Waterways Committee to tackle security
challenges in the water ways Delta State Advisory and Peace Building
Council.
xiv. Delta State Security Trust Fund to provide institutional
framework for sustainable funding, appropriate governance and
efficient management of security sector in the state.
xv. Establishment of small claims court for quick settlement of commercial disputes.
xvi. Delta State public and private property protection Law 2018.
xvii. Delta State Electricity Power Law 2024.
xviii. Delta State Environmental Protection Agency.
xix. Delta State Forestry Law.
xx. Delta State Fisheries Edict,1994: Mandatory registration of dredging sites and the submission of Environmental Impact Assessment documents by dredgers (January, 2025).
xxi. Operation Delta Sweep to enhance joint security operations in the State.
xxii. Delta State Innovation Hub, Asaba: Provides Technology and Skill Training, Co-Work Space, Startups, Incubation and Acceleration Programs, Mentorship and Entrepreneurial Development.
xxiii. Delta State Contributory Health Commission (DSCHC): Established to ensure access to quality healthcare services for all residents of Delta State, irrespective of their socio-economic status.
xxiv. Delta State Renewable Energy Policy Roadmap: Aims to promote the use of renewable energy sources in the state, such as solar and wind power.
- O THE MORE AGENDA AND ACCELERATED GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF DELTA STATE
The MORE Agenda encompasses the following development pillars, namely: Meaningful Development, Opportunities for all, Realistic Reforms, and Enhanced Peace and Security. The state’s macroeconomic framework which was earlier discussed in this paper, constitute the bedrock of the administration’s policy implementation through the MORE Agenda by deploying some of the following strategies: making agricultural projects to encompass the whole value chain from planting, harvesting, processing, packaging, marketing and sales thereby making the sector to be more sustainable with greater revenue generation capacity; undertaking massive infrastructural projects by constructing roads, drainage, erosion control, urban and environmental development, airport, transportation, water supply, markets development, investment in oil, natural gas, power and energy sector as well as massive investments in health, education and technical / skills acquisition in order to enhance the enabling environment for business growth.
Moreover, the state government is committed to reducing the cost of doing business and generally enhancing the Ease of Doing business (EODB); in addition to developing collaborative framework for Public Private Partnership to attract investors to locate in the State in order to generate more employment, create wealth and accelerate the growth and development of the state.
In conclusion, through diligent implementation of the MORE Agenda, the Rt. Hon Sheriff F. O. Oborevwori’s administration has made a bold statement to accelerate the growth and development of Delta State by providing world class infrastructural projects in unprecedented scale and creating the enabling environment for the Private Sector to thrive.
Thank you for your attention. (Olorogun Lucky Oghene-Omoru JP (MA Econs, University of Wales, UK, FIB, FIMC, Life Member, Nigeria Economic Society) is a Development Economist, Investment Banker and Former Honourable Commissioner for Commerce, Industry, Cooperatives and Tourism and later Commissioner of Finance and Economic Planning in the defunct Bendel State, former Director General and currently the Chairman of Delta State Investments Development Agency (DIDA))