Delta building capacity for future – Commissioner

Chike Ogeah, the Delta State Commissioner for Information, said on Wednesday that the state was building capacity in five key areas to sustain its future.
Ogeah told the News Agency of Nigeria in Asaba, the state capital, that the capacity building was part of government’s drive to move the state beyond oil.
He said the five key areas are Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, tourism, sports, information and communication technology and agriculture.
Ogeah said countries like Brazil, China, South Africa, Malaysia and India built their economies in these areas and had been doing well for the people.
He said: “What we are saying is that those resources we are earning today, which we might not continue to earn, let us use it to build capacity in the other major areas that we can have comparative advantage.
“And basically in Delta, we have found about five of those key areas most countries have used to make the quantum leap from under developed to developing and developed countries within 20, 30 years.
“We are talking about BRICS countries and I will give their names: Countries like India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa China.
“This is what they have used to make that quantum leap.
“The Malaysians came and took palm seedlings from here in the seventies.
“See what they have done.
“See how they have diversified their economy.
“But for us in Delta, one of the critical areas is really the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises sector, which is a great catalyst for growth.
“This is the area most of those Asian tigers used.”
Ogeah said some Asian countries used the SMEs to build small businesses, create employment, and use micro finance banks to create big multinational banks.
The commissioner said the state would use tourism to make Asaba the capital of Nollywood and home for entertainment.
“We keep saying that our beyond oil is a journey, it is not a destination,” he said.
He said the Asaba airport would have a green house zone, where agricultural products would be processed and exported.