By Adedapo Adesanya
The Anambra State Government has revealed that it will begin to earn 13 per cent derivation fund in line with its status as an oil-producing state from March.
This was disclosed by the Governor of the state, Mr Willie Obiano, at a parley with journalists in Aguleri, Anambra East Local Government Area after a tour of the Awka International Convention Centre and Anambra Cargo and passenger airport on Saturday.
He said he was notified by the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Pricing and Regulatory Agency (NMDPRA) who had confirmed the lifting of crude oil in commercial quantity in Anambra.
He said Anambra had 15 oil wells with ENIYE 10940 Oil fields operated by SEEPCO fully operational and wholly owned by the state.
Anambra is the 10th oil-producing state following the footsteps of Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, Ondo, Edo, Imo, Abia and Lagos States.
In 2019, NMDPRA then known as the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) when confronted by the Senate on why the state had not been recognised, insisted that the South-East state alongside its neighbour Enugu and Kogi States could not be declared oil-producing states until the company prospecting for the commodity scaled up its operations from an oil prospecting to oil mining lease.
Speaking on other areas of revenue generation, Mr Obiano said the rice production of the state had hit 530,000 metric tonnes yearly from the 85,000 metric tonnes capacity of 2014.
He said the revolution his administration brought into the agricultural sector made the state become not only self-sufficient in production but a net exporter of the commodity.
He said the state demand was just about 330,000 metric tonnes of the total output noting that a lot of businesses had been invested in the sector and that many family economies had been transformed by the boom.
He said the Anambra Airport which was fully operational would boost trade and commerce as well as export capacities of the state.
Mr Obiano said the 10,000 capacity International Convention Centre would be inaugurated on March 9, 2022.
He noted that he would not be going for any political office but announced that his wife, Mrs Ebelechuwku Obiano, would be contesting for Anambra North Senatorial District.
