Economic Climate: Government's efforts to create a conducive investment climate in the state include the granting of loans to willing entrepreneurs (i.e. local investors) to establish small and medium industries. A package of incentives for for eight investors is also available. These include, capital allowance, tax holiday, relief and tariff protection.
Industrial Potentialities: A wide array of raw materials for agriculture and mineral based industries exist in the state, offering considerable investment opportunities. The raw materials from agriculture include oil palm, rubber, cassava, maize, fruits and vegetable. The possible areas for investments that will rely on agricultural raw materials include:
(a) Palm oil: Production of fatty oil used in paint and soap manufacture; production of palm wine for export trade to European market; and distilling of gin from raffia and oil palm wine.
(b) Rubber: Production of such items as belts, pipes, mats, auto accessories, shoe heels and soles, seal washers and bungs. (c) Cassava: Production of industrial starch.
(d) Maize: Establishment of feed mills.
(e) Fruits and Vegetables: Processing for fruit juice and tomato puree.
(f) Fish: In fishing industries, opportunities exist for establishment of textile and equipment industry, manufacturing of fishing nets, boat building and canning industries.
(g) Timber: Projects for investment using timber include: the production of chip board or particle board, toilet rolls and corrugated boards for packaging, small toys, tooth picks, pegs, spoons, ice cream sticks and straw matting for pack ing. It also includes the production of pre fabricated housing units.
Products from mineral based industries also provide wide opportunities for investment. The existing mineral based industries in Delta State are: Bendel Glass Factory (Ughelli), Delta Glass Company (Ughelli), Oil Refinery (Warri), Petro chemical Plant (Ekpan) and Delta Steel Company (Aladja). The products are glasses, carbon black, polypropylene, gas and steel billets respectively. Specific projects with aood investment poten
Glass: Glass bottles for beverages and brewery industries; Permaldyhyde Resin: used in the ply wood industries;
Steel billets: The linkage industries that can attract investments are foundry and diecasting; prefabrication industries for the supply of spare parts required in auto mobile industries, rolling mills and flat mills;
Oil Refining: Investment opportunities contingent upon refining and ancillary activities, include establishment of indus tries for the following industrial and food grade solvents: insecticides; cosmetics mineral oil, petroleum jelly, greases, bitu minousbased water/dampproof building materials such as floor tiles, rubber prod ucts, tarpaulins, etc.; asphalt storage, packaging and blending plants to handle products for export and local use.
Carbon black and Polypropylene from petrochemical industries at Ekpan: The carbon black would be required for the establishment of industries for the manufacture of tyres, rubber products, pigment printing inks, etc.
The industries that require the use of polypropylene include industries for the production of injection moulding, blow moulding, fibres extrusion, shipping sacks, prayer mats, carpet underlay and cloth wrap.
Gas Industry: Opportunities exist for the establishment of industries for the extraction of solvents for both domestic and export markets and the manufacture of fertiliser. For the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), opportunities exist for pipe laying, pipe coating, inspection and numerous process related activities as well as maritime operations.
Oil exploration activities: Opportunities exist for surveying, such as geodetic con trol establishment and sea bottom sur vey: civil works covering preparation of drilling location; seismic data acquisition and interpretation; geological and geo chemical studies.
In drilling operations, exploration companies depend on the services of oil field contractors for the supply of drilling and work over rigs, field transportation and equipment for haulage and rig movements; general and specialized services such as casing running, segmentation, welding, diving and catering; provision of muds and other chemicals.
In crude oil transportation and stor age, investment opportunities exist for the construction and maintenance of crude oil storage tanks and pipelines. In exploration and production, NNPC con stantly considers requests from investors interested in the acquisition of acreages for hydrocarbon exploration, and the sub sequent development and operation of such fields.
Historical Development: The area called Delta State was once an integral part of the old Western Region of Nigeria. It became an autonomous entity on August 27, 1991 after having been part of the old Midwestern State (1963 1976) and the defunct Bendel State (1976 1991).
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| Warri Refinery |
Delta State started with twelve local government areas. These were split further into nineteen local governments on September 27, 1991, and to twentyfive LGAs in 1997. Asaba, located at the northern end of the state, is the capital. A master plan for Asaba Capital Territory, with an estimated area of 762 sq. km and designed to transform Asaba into a modern metrop olis, is being pursued by the state government.
Location: Delta State lies roughly between longitudes 5�00 and 6�45'E and latitudes 5�00 and 6�30'N. It has a total land area of 16,842 sq. km. The states bordering Delta State are Edo to the north, Ondo to the northwest, Anambra to the east and Bayelsa and Rivers to the southeast. On its southern flank is 160 km of the coastline of the Bight of Benin.
Administrative Areas: Delta State currently has twentyfive local government areas. They are: Aniocha North, Aniocha South, Bomadi, Burutu, Ethiope East, Ethiope West, lka NorthEast, lka South, Isoko North, Isoko South, Ndokwa East, Ndokwa West Okpe, Oshimili North Oshimili South, Patani, Sapele, Udu, Ughelli North, Ughelli South, Ukwani, Uvwie, Warri North, Warri South and Warri SouthWest.
Administrative Structure: Delta State runs a twotier system of government namely; the state government and the local government administration.
The State Government: There are three arms of government which include the executive council, the legislature and the judiciary. The executive council comprises the Governor, Deputy Governor, seven commissioners, special advisers and the secretary to the state government. The commissioners head the ministries while the directorates and parastatals are organs in the office of the governor and deputy governor, respectively.
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| Chief Nana's Palace, Koko |
The special advisers are assigned responsibilities usually in the following areas: information, paras tatals, education, health, commerce and industry. The Delta State House of Assembly is the leg islative or lawmaking arm of the government. Currently, the membership of the State House of Assembly is fifty.
The Chief Judge of the state heads the state's judiciary. The judiciary is organised around a sys tem of courts, which are of three different kinds namely the High Court, the Magistrates' Court and the Customary Court. There is also a Customary Court of Appeal to hear appeal cases from the Customary Courts.
The Local Government: The second tier of government, is the local government administration. It consists of two arms of government in each of the local government administration. The first, the executive committee comprises the chairman of the local government, the deputy chairman, supervisors and secretary to the local government. The second, the legislative council is the lawmaking arm of the local government. The principal officers of the legislative council are; the speaker, deputy speaker, majority and minority leaders.
