By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
The Anambra State Commissioner for Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Professor Charles Ofoegbu, has said that the Ministry is working hard to scale Anambra’s infrastructure and stake in petroleum and mineral resources. Professor Ofoegbu, a globally reputed professor of geophysics, is playing an important role with his wealth of experience in Governor Soludo’s quest to industrialize Anambra State.
Economic Transformation is the first in the Solution Agenda, through among other things, scaling Anambra’s stake in “solid minerals and oil and gas”. For Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, Anambra needs to leverage its petroleum and mineral potentials as part of efforts before it can leapfrog as an industrial hub. Consequently, the Governor created the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and appointed Professor Ofoegbu the pioneer Commissioner of the Ministry.
Anambra is endowed with oil and gas in large quantities, as well as other mineral resources. Yet, the Ministry’s mandate is neither short-sighted nor designed to serve a narrow political end. According to the Commissioner, Professor Ofoegbu, the Ministry is mindful of its long-term mandate and is working hard to put a framework in place and also develop a clear state policy on oil and gas exploration as well as mining across Anambra State. The Commissioner also hinted at the Ministry’s mandate to go beyond mineral extraction and move into various levels of processing, a move already underway, in part, through processing plants for kaolin in Ukpor, Nnewi South LGA, with large deposits of kaolin. That and other infrastructures of the state will be scaled by the Anambra Development and Investment Corporation (ADIC) to actually achieve the key focus of Soludo’s administration, which is the industrialization of Anambra State.
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