Rivers State was created out of the former Eastern Region on 27th May 1967 by the then regime of General Yakubu Gowon. Bayels State was carved out of it in the state creation excercise of 1996. It’s capital and biggest city is Port Harcourt.

Located in Southern Nigeria, in the delta region, Rivers State covers 11,077 square kilometres. The inland part of Rivers state consists of tropical rainforest; towards the coast the typical river delta environment features many mangrove swamps. Rivers state was part of the Oil Rivers Protectorate from 1885 till 1893, when it became part of the Niger Coast Protectorate. In 1900 the region was merged with the chartered territories of the Royal Niger Company to form the colony of Southern Nigeria.

Rivers State is bounded on the South by the Atlantic Ocean, to the North by the Anambra, Imo and Abia States, to the East by Akwa Ibom State and to the West by the Bayelsa and Delta States.
ECONOMY
The capital, Port Harcourt, is the nerve centre of the famous Nigerian Oil industry and over ninety industrial concerns, including the Shell Petroleum Development Company of (Nigeria) Limited, AGIP, Texaco, Elf, NPRC, Michelin, West African Glass Industry, Alcan Aluminium, Metaloplastica, Risonpalm, NAFCON, Pabod Breweries, to mention a few.

Due to its beautiful layout and peculiar topography, Port Harcourt, christened “Garden City”, is accessible by road, rail, air and sea. Apart from being a railway terminus and having one of the busiest airports in Nigeria, Port Harcourt has the unique natural advantage of being the nation’s second largest sea port with another sea port, the Ocean Terminal at Onne.