In an insightful interview with a media panel in Port Harcourt, Chamberlain Peterside, arrowhead of strategic investment promotions drive, the Director-General of the newly established Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency (RSIPA), shows ways of unlocking investment opportunities in the state despite ceaseless political tensions. IGNATIUS CHUKWU reports that the one-time Commissioner for Finance in the state says Rivers State is at a defining moment: rich in natural resources, is in a strategic location, has vibrant human capital, and growing infrastructure. He however thinks that beyond the headlines of oil and gas lies a broader story of opportunities across agriculture, manufacturing, technology, logistics, tourism, and the blue economy.
When we talk about unlocking investment opportunities in Rivers State, what does that truly mean in practical terms?
You know, opportunities most often always exist in countries and jurisdictions. But you have to make a conscious effort to unlock and to harness and to leverage those opportunities. So that’s what we are doing in RSIPA.
What are the top priority sectors currently open and attractive to investors in Rivers State?
Its true that Rivers State has natural attributes. So, when you talk about the oil and gas, you will always talk about Rivers State. Port Harcourt has historically been the staging point for the hydrocarbon industry. But beyond that, Rivers State is also a coastal state. So, as we have evolved, the opportunities in the blue economy still remain very potent and untapped.
Agriculture is a big part of Rivers’ economy. And so those are the key pillars: oil and gas, agriculture, and blue economy.
If you go much deeper, you will see that there’s a whole plethora of sub-sectors within those areas. People will begin to talk about infrastructure, people talk about ICT and other areas, but those are sub-sets of the key pillars.
Which is the topmost pillar, by your understanding, in the face of huge agric potentials?
You are very correct to point at the various investments in agric that have collapsed, but let me quickly add one of the pillars I missed out, manufacturing, which is very, very critical. Rivers State has had the Trans-Amadi Industrial Area which for years was the largest industrial park in the eastern zone of the country. It hosted a lot of big manufacturing entities like Newclime, Michelin, Rivoc, Papod Breweries, and a host of others. Some are still operating at skeletal levels.
Only industrial agriculture will save Nigeria:
Back to agriculture, I would say agriculture in peasant or subsistence format will not fly. We are about 220 million people in the country, and Rivers State is anywhere from 6.5 to 8.5 million. You’re not going to feed them with the kind of subsistence agriculture that we’ve had.
So, I think agriculture, industrial agriculture, has to get a big boost. We’ve had a farm called Rivers Songhai Farm Initiative which, by the way, is going through reactivation as we speak. The whole purpose of Songhai Farm wasn’t to try to set up a farm settlement, but it was to create a demonstration farm where you can implement out-grower programmes, where you can train farmers, where you can give them seedlings, and you equip them with the resources, the knowledge, the crops, and infrastructure that they can now go out and farm productively and in a commercial, you know, on a commercially viable basis.
Fish farming and everything that has to do with the sea remains untapped. Rivers State remains a major importer of fish, which is very ironic. We are surrounded by huge ocean and mass water base. How can we not be tapping those potentials? You have to do agric on a higher scale, beyond the persistence and peasant agricultural format that we’ve had over the years. That would not work, unfortunately.
Why wouldn’t agriculture work if adequate appropriation is made to it yearly?
The truth is that the world has changed and, you know, the agricultural value chain is evolving also. So in other countries, you can per hectare produce a large amount—a much more robust output than we produce here. Their productivity is low, and the infrastructure is almost nonexistent.
How many farms in Rivers State use tractors and modern farm equipment, for instance? How many people are engaged—what is the average size of a farm in Rivers State? So those are the issues. But beyond agricultural produce, there’s also the agro-industrial sector. So you have to go from production of agricultural [goods] as food and raw materials into processing.
Unfortunately, we’re not there yet, but I think there’s a conscious effort to transition from peasant agriculture, subsistence agriculture with low yield, low productivity, and lack of resources—education, loans, soft loans—we do have Rivers State Microfinance Agency that is very, very involved. And so the farmers haven’t been very involved in funding agriculture, but not in the size and in the magnitude that we truly require.
I mean, countries have done marvelously well. In a country like Mongolia, there are more sheep and more cattle than you have human beings. Same thing with New Zealand. Okay, New Zealand is a very small country with more sheep and cattle than you have humans there. Same thing applies to New Zealand, a major exporter of cattle despite its very small population of about 5 million. And so you have even in the US, of course, you have commercial farms that are huge and that can employ very minimal number of people, but its output and its size in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) is very high.
So in the US, for instance, you have less than 2% of population involved in agriculture, but US almost feeds itself and exports a lot of produce. That’s the kind of agriculture we think we should be able to develop in Rivers State.
Is it possible to have that?
Oh, absolutely. I mean, what do you need? You talked about budget. It’s not only and not always about finance. I think we make wrong assumptions and we emphasize too much about money.
You talked about tractors and I felt money is needed for such high-cost input plus AI interruptions?
Raw cash will rather ruin agriculture:
Money, yes, but if you give an average farmer or the farmers in Rivers State say N10 million each, do you think that’s going to change their livelihood? No, of course not. It’s going to create displacement. They will rather leave farming with that kind of money to do other things. So you equip them with the knowledge, with the resources and infrastructure. I mean, there are systems where you can invest in tractor parks, where you can invest in equipment where they can lease them. You can give them the right training, give them the right seedlings and how to run their operations.
At least from my understanding, education and knowledge in agriculture would truly boost the value chain more than physical cash would do. So it’s not only about money. Rivers State has a reasonable and sizeable financial resource. But if you put it all into the hands of farmers, I don’t think we’ll achieve the results that we expect. So we have to be very reasonable and smart in deploying our resources, in training the farmers, in investing in agricultural value chain and infrastructure, and in moving agriculture from the subsistence level to the much higher-valued processing.
That’s when you’re going to have industries and manufacturing and exporting. So we have a large palm plantation, for instance. If you see what has happened over the last recent years, palm produce is beginning to expand in terms of its usage, and its deployment in manufacturing.
But we do have a large palm plantation, Risonpalm?
Yes. I hope and I believe that they are processing some of their produce because that is very, very important. Malaysia got their palm seedlings from Nigeria, but today they are the leaders in not only growing palm fruit, but in processing it. It feeds the food industry, feeds the manufacturing, the drug industry, and the petrochemical industry.
So that’s what is called expanding the agricultural value chain. That’s what we should aim to do in Rivers State.
Isn’t it possible for a state to have such large scale farms and add processing like Cassava project?
RSIPA is trying to encourage and attract large scale investments in agriculture:
You’re absolutely on point. Look, what we’re doing in the Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency is to try and encourage investments, large investments in agriculture. Whether you like it or not, the peasant farmer would become extinct. Not because they wish so, but systemic evolution would make them extinct.
So the world has continuously been shifting to commercial farming. So what we’re doing in the agency is to consciously encourage large-scale investment in agriculture. So you talked about the plantation which was the banana plantation; it was set up by a foreign investor. And unfortunately, that plantation is no more there. But ask yourself, how many large commercial farms exist in Rivers State? Aside from Risonpalm, what other crops are grown in large quantities in Rivers State?
Aside from the cassava plant, where do you have in Rivers State any other processing plant for any product? Whether it’s fish canning, or whether it’s processing fruits, vegetables, packaging, or any of that? I don’t know if any exists, but I know that there’s a lot of investors (small, mid-sized investors) and that is what we have lived off in recent years. But I think that going forward, the answer is a conscious effort to encourage, to attract large investors in the agricultural value chain.
So when we talk about agriculture, we mean processing, harvesting, in packaging, both for exports and local consumption. Same thing applies to fish. There’s business beyond just catching the fish, selling it in the open market. There’s a whole value chain which remains untapped. So our effort is to target large-scale investments in those sectors.
Beyond oil and gas, how is Rivers State positioning itself for diversification and long-term economic stability?
Beware of ‘natural resource curse’
Now, there’s what they call the ‘natural resource curse,’ which is that you get affected negatively when you have natural resources. You live off it, you earn—with minimal or no effort—you earn revenue from it, and that makes you ignore other areas and facets of life and then you’re unable to invest and to build capacity. And that’s what Nigeria has suffered, especially Rivers State. It has impacted us in so many ways negatively—the fact that we’re endowed.
Conversely, that endowment ought to be the platform on which we should build a modern economy, but we’ve not been successful in doing that. That’s a big problem. So beyond oil and gas, the world is changing. Hydrocarbon is gradually being phased out. You’re talking about electric vehicles, you’re talking about solar energy, renewable energy—these are the sectors that will hold sway into the future.
We have a lot of oil and gas today which we call ‘transitional energy.’ We have to make efforts to move. Use the resources from oil and gas and invest in manufacturing, invest in human capital development, invest in technology. We hear a lot about Artificial Intelligence (AI). What are we doing about that? I don’t think that aside from what we see on social media, I don’t think there’s any effort, any platform of activities that are going on concerning AI in Rivers State.
Unfortunately, if we leave that all to the private sector, it wouldn’t work. So we believe that here in RSIPA, we should make efforts and we’re making that effort in advising the government to pay attention to technology infrastructure, building the technological backbone that will drive the new economy beyond oil and gas. A lot of manufacturing and processing of food products, natural resources are all automated. And so if you don’t have power, for instance, how are you going to manufacture or produce anything?
So oil and gas should be the base product, the launch pad that should lead us to invest in infrastructure, i.e., power—whether it’s renewable, or solar-powered—manufacturing, and information technology. But most importantly, invest in the most crucial or the critical element in the value chain: invest in the people.
Is there any specific incentive or policy that the state has introduced to encourage local and foreign investment?
Yes, of course. As you are aware, in May 2024 to be precise, the Governor was able to put together a team that helped to host the first Investment and Economic Summit, and it was very successful. On the back of that, he thought it wise to build upon it, and so he signed an executive order that led to the formation of the Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency in sometime in August/September 2024.
That singular act which had never been there before for the first time, is a specialized entity that was created to focus on facilitating, on promoting, and most importantly, supporting the growth of private investments. And I think that is a very pivotal moment in the evolution of the economy of Rivers State.
We are now able to interface directly with investors. Proposals don’t have to go to His Excellency. Proposals that are good, smart investment ideas now go to a destination of people who are knowledgeable.
We have set up what we call a One-Stop-Shop Center under the auspices of RSIPA. It’s a center within the offices of RSIPA where you have the ministries and departments all under the same roof. All matters concerning business are treated there.
I’m sure you’ve heard people complain about the multiplicity of tax and the issues of harassment. Now, you have a place and you have a recourse where you can approach the office and you have your problems addressed or solved. That’s a game-changer as far as I’m concerned in terms of stimulating private sector-driven economic activity.
It is functional but there was a period of ‘sabbatical’—which is during the state of emergency. But right after that, the Governor showed keen interest for work to resume. That’s how somebody takes a passionate attention to business and investment. You know what that means.
Investors often worry about bureaucracy. How is RSIPA improving the ease of doing business in Rivers State?
Like I was saying earlier on, the One-Stop-Shop Center offers ease of doing business and handles all matters at same time.
I think some of the impediments to attracting private sector investment is, first, the perception. The perception that Rivers State is risky—a place that you are not safe to do business. We understand that and we know that it’s not true, so we’re working to address that. This interaction with the media is one of such efforts to put the fact clear.
Next, if you’re unable to have your problems or your issues or challenges in business resolved, you will not invest there. So what we have done in RSIPA is to bring all the stakeholders—everyone who is involved in the issuing of those permits and approvals—bring them under one roof. Now, that does not take away their roles as ministries and departments; they remain the frontline entities. But under the investment agency, we do have them working collaboratively.
So the challenges of going from office to office have gone.
We had a scenario where Ministry of Urban and Housing were having an interactive session in one of our trainings, and it happened that they did not have a “handshake” in terms of who issues what approval, in terms of maintaining zoning laws and making sure that people don’t violate those laws. So Ministry of Urban has the oversight for zoning, but Ministry of Housing has the oversight for the kind of structure you put up. Having an interface between those ministries solved huge problem.
What major transport, power, or industrial projects should investors be aware of?
Infrastructure is one of the backbones of any economy: roads where the state is doing remarkably well over many years now. We have the Ring Road which is ongoing, we have the Trans-Kalabari, we have a lot of other major, major road projects that are opening up rural areas, connecting the LGAs. And so that is marvelous.
But beyond that, I think for me, I consider power—power as the single most critical infrastructure to drive investments. Power is at the root of manufacturing, it’s at the root of education, healthcare, ICT. You can’t run computers without power supply.
So investing in power, I think, is one area and His Excellency the Governor had made it very clear. There was a delegation that came from the World Bank/IMF—IFC in December 2025 to sensitize the state and see how they could partner and help fund infrastructure and urban renewal programmes. And the Governor made it very clear that he is very interested in renewable energy programmes.
Rivers three emerging industrial parks with adequate power supply:
So as we speak, there’s an interaction that is ongoing with the World Bank/IFC. He said, “First, I want to use power to revive manufacturing.” So he mentioned three locations: Ahoada Industrial Park, which he believes that we should power very quickly and get it back up to speed; he mentioned the Trans-Amadi Industrial Area, which as you know, was historically a very vibrant manufacturing hub; and then of course he mentioned the Onne axis. There’s a joint venture programme or project called the New Port City that is currently ongoing.
His objective is to power these key hubs, the nodes that will drive subsequent activities—commercial, manufacturing. And so power is very key. We happen to have already inbuilt power capacity which I think, to my recollection, is somewhere about 500 and maybe 600 megawatts of power around the state many years ago.
Rivers State had the highest number of power turbines around the country, but maintenance and, of course, the legal issues—the regulatory issues—around power production and distribution were a problem. But with the new Electricity Act, the state is now empowered to produce, to distribute, and to manage its own power resources. And so the Governor is very, very keen on that.
We are working with several investors who are interested in either taking over some of our power assets or developing new ones—especially renewable energy, solar power—to feed these industrial hubs. So that is one major infrastructure project that is ongoing.
What is the status of the Onne axis and the New Port City which was launched with a lot of fanfare?
Yes, the New Port City is a joint venture between the Rivers State Government and a private developer (the MSC Group). It is a very ambitious project that aims to create a modern, smart city around the Onne Port. It will have residential areas, commercial hubs, and industrial zones.
The project is currently at the stage of infrastructure development. Land clearing and sand filling have been ongoing, and the design for the primary infrastructure is being finalized. It is a long-term project, but the Governor is committed to seeing it through because it will transform that axis into a major economic engine for the state.
Despite claims by the government that the perception of insecurity is false, we investors are still worried about cultism and kidnapping. What is the government doing specifically to guarantee the safety of our investments?
Security is a top priority for His Excellency. We have strengthened the collaboration between the state and the federal security agencies. The C4I Unit has been revitalized with new equipment and vehicles.
Beyond that, we are addressing the root causes through job creation and youth empowerment programs. When the youth are gainfully employed in these new agricultural and manufacturing projects we are discussing, the incentive to go into crime reduces. We are also implementing a digital surveillance system in key industrial and commercial zones to provide real-time monitoring.
How can small businesses benefit from this “One-Stop-Shop” or is it only for big investors?
Ease of Doing Business: We have dedicated desk for MSMEs.
Not at all. The One-Stop-Shop is for everyone. Whether you are a small tailor looking for a business permit or a large multinational company, the goal is to make the process easy for you. We actually have a dedicated desk for MSMEs to provide them with guidance and support because we know they are the real drivers of the economy.
Any final words for potential investors listening to or reading this?
Rivers State is open for business!
My message is simple: Rivers State is open for business. We have the resources, we have the political will, and we now have the institutional framework through RSIPA to protect and support your investments. Don’t wait; come and partner with us to build a more prosperous Rivers State.
