Orji: Why Abia Will Not Go to Bond Market


Unlike most of his colleagues, Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State Government has ruled out going to the bond market to raise funds for the financing of projects in the state, saying that he would continue to manage the available resources.

Speaking during an interactive session with financial journalists in Umuahia, the governor said instead of issue raising debt from the fixed income market, he would rather work towards increasing the state's Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to meet infrastructural needs.

“We want to cut our coat according to our size. When I take bond, when my allocation comes from Abuja, they will take part of it to settle for the bond. I will not be able to pay salaries and I may have problem in the state. So, it is better that I manage what I have prudently and increase my IGR. We keep putting our officials under pressure to increase our level of IGR.

“To take bond of N250 billion or N300 billion? I will never do that! I am happy with the structures we are putting on ground and when you go round the state you know it is prudent management. But when you raise bond, you may end up not even utilising the money for the purpose it was meant for,” the governor declared.

According to him, his administration was assiduously working towards attracting investors to the state as well as the reviving of ailing industries.
Orji revealed that the Nigerian Breweries in Aba has concluded plans to invest N17 billion in the expansion of its operations in the state.

He added: “So, in terms of industrialisation, we are trying. But government does not run industries. What we are doing is trying to bring in people that can revive our dead industries such as Golden Guinea Breweries Limited, which we have gotten and I am sure would be revived before 2015.


“The glass industry that we have in Aba is running. These are government industries. The others are privately owned industries. Therefore Aba remains key to us; that is why we are fixing the infrastructure. We want to repair all the roads, keep the place clean, provide security, so that people can come in and invest.”


According to the governor, his administration had embarked on youth empowerment programmes to alleviate poverty in the state and address the issue of kidnapping and other social vices.


“Today, Abia pays the highest minimum wage in the whole of the federation. We pay N20,100. Check out if there is any state that is paying that. Despite the fact that we are not very rich, we pay that amount and even the arrears. We introduced biometric system of payment to flush out a lot of ghost workers from the system,” he added.