Delta State Government, Friday, reiterated that it had not borrowed any money since Governor Sheriff Oborevwori took over governance in the state on May 29, 2023.
The State Commissioner for Finance, Chief Fidelis Tilije who disclosed this at a press conference in Asaba, said contrary to reports by an online news medium, the State Government had not entered into any borrowing relationship with any institution.
According to him, “this state has not entered into any borrowing relationship whatsoever, whether partnership, individual, corporate, bank, local, national or international. We have not borrowed a dime since this administration took effect on the 29th of May, 2023.
“I can state categorically in any forum I found myself, that Delta State remains, in terms of financial terms, the strongest financial state standing in this country. I say so with every emphasis because I know the finances of the state, and I say that we are clearly, clearly the strongest financial state in Nigeria”, he said
Tilije added, “I can stand this debate at any point in time, because I know the balances as I speak to you today. I know the efforts that are being made by this administration. We stand categorically, heads up, to state that this administration has not borrowed a dime since 29th of May, 2023.
“We have paid so much in terms of construction, we have made sure that all debts are being paid down as seriously as we can. We have also improved in terms of contractual relationship with our contractors. Before now, it was difficult for us to give our contractors advanced payments.
“But as I speak, virtually all of the major contracts we have now, we have actually offered between 30 percent to 40 percent, in terms of advanced payments. Indeed, the last discussion I had with the Governor, we are even thinking that for this particular dry season, we are going to be paying up to 70 percent advance payment.
“Because of the inflationary trends in Nigeria, we don’t want to be caught up in it at all. We do not want to review any contract whatsoever as we move on in this dry season.
“We want to take advantage of the dry season to do as much as we can and in terms of creating value for money for Deltans, the inspections that he has carried out are actually giving out so much to you and I.
“We need to understand his effort in trying to ensure that there is funding for all contracts that we have given and in all relationships that are actually being entered into by this administration.
“I state once again, categorically, as Commissioner for Finance, Delta State, that we have not borrowed any one kobo from any institution whatsoever since 29th of May, 2023.
“I also state categorically, and I am willing to stand anywhere to debate it, that we are the strongest states in terms of finance in this country.”
On his part, the State Commissioner for Works (Rural Roads) and Public Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu described Governor Sheriff Oborevwori as a man of impeccable integrity who has demonstrated a lot of transparency in the running of the affairs of the state.
“We have read out a number of projects that we have embarked upon in the last 19 and half months, and that all those projects are being funded by the funds that are at the disposal of the state, and that at no time in the last 19 and a half months has the state made any move to ask anybody to give us money in form of loan.
“We are only using what is available to us that comes in from our entire state. We have not at any time borrowed a penny, and so we were surprised when we saw a report in one of the online platforms suggesting that we are number one in terms of borrowing.
“We don’t know where that came from because as a state we are on a platform of solid liquidity. We are not only liquid, but we are solidly liquid to be able to deal with the problems that we have and that tells you the management skills of the Oborevwori administration,” he said.
Rural Devt: Oborevwori connecting communities, transforming lives in Delta – Aniagwu
Delta State Commissioner for Works (Rural Roads) and Public Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, Thursday, said Governor Sheriff Oborevwori was connecting communities and transforming lives through provision of road infrastructure across rural communities in the state.
Speaking on national television monitored in Asaba, Aniagwu said Governor Oborevwori has completed over 100km of roads with over 150km ongoing.
He said Oborevwori provided N1 billion each for road construction in the 25 local government areas in 2024 fiscal year and upscaled it to N2.1 billion each in the 2025 budget.
“When the governor came in on May 29, 2023, he made a number of promises, but chiefly he was clear on the need to continue on existing projects, in which case he was going to ensure that no project was abandoned and at the same time initiating new ones.
“In terms of connecting our communities, he has been able to ensure that every local government has roads that are ongoing or completed, which is why he created the Ministry of Works, Rural Roads, and then started with the responsibility of opening up our rural communities.
“In the 2024 fiscal year, he made sure that we, first of all, amassed one billion for each of the local governments to enable us to tackle some community roads.
“The moment we saw the benefit of that particular budgetary provision, at the time we now started preparing for the 2025 budget, he directed that we must increase it to above N2 billion per local government.
“As I speak to you, in terms of tackling rural roads, we provided over N2.1 billion to be able to tackle rural roads in every local government and that is not inclusive of what we have also provided for ongoing and new projects.
“The government, seeing the need to indeed link up to communities in our state, directed that we must also extend this construction of roads to riverine areas.
“Delta being a coastal state, has a whole lot of riverine communities where they need to also construct roads in addition to bridges to link up to these rural and riverine communities.
“All those are ongoing and we have commissioned a number of them. As I speak to you, not less than 100 kilometers of such roads have been completed, even as over 150 are also ongoing.”
The Commissioner further remarked that Governor Oborevwori was interested in developing rural communities alongside the urban centres to curb rural-urban migration.
“The reason is because we believe that once the rural communities are developed, we would have been able to chiefly empower the people because the number of the people who even migrate to the urban centers also come from these rural communities.
“Making rural communities much more livable to the people will ultimately free the urban areas, because the issue of rural-urban drift that makes the urban areas to become overpopulated, puts a whole lot of pressure on the infrastructure in the urban centers.
“So for us to be able to keep pace with this development in urban centers, we needed to do something in the rural areas in addition to the fact that it also makes it possible for us to ensure security of life and property in those communities.”
He said no state had budgeted over N125 billion for development of road infrastructure in rural communities across the country, assuring that requests for road construction in communities would be prioritised on need assessment basis subject to availability of funds.
