Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, has said he will be leaving the state next month as an oil producing state, with capacity to produce rice that could sustain the state.

Obiano said Anambra State would begin to earn 13 per cent derivation from oil production as an oil producing state, while reading to journalists a text message from a regulatory agency, notifying him of the lifting of oil from the state, and the intended payment.

The governor spoke to journalists in Aguleri, his home town, in the Anambra East Local Government Area of the state after a tour of the Awka International Convention Centre and the Anambra International Cargo and Passenger Airport in Umueri built in the second tenure of his administration.

He said: “I have been notified of this (intention of federal government to commence payment of 13 percent derivation to Anambra) by the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Pricing and Regulatory Agency, who had confirmed lifting of crude oil in commercial quantity from the state.

“Anambra has 15 oil wells with Eniye 10940 oil field operated by SEEPCO fully operational and wholly owned by the state.”

Obiano also said that the state’s rice production had hit 530,000 metric tonnes yearly from the 85,000 metric tonnes capacity in 2014.

“The revolution my administration brought into the agricultural sector had made the state become not only self-sufficient in production but a net exporter of the commodity.”

The governor stated that demand for rice in the state was just 330,000 metric tonnes of the total output.