By Shishang John
May 22, 2024
The Rivers State Government Wednesday begins an investment summit where an assembled team of economic experts brainstorm possible ways to drive economic growth and development in the state.
Taking place at Port Harcourt, the state capital, the two-day summit is themed: Advancing Pathways to Economic Growth and sustainability.
The event start at 9:00 a.m. at Obi Wali International Conference Centre in Port Harcourt. It will be wrapped on Thursday.
The economic experts were drawn from various sectors.
The summit, expected to enhance the business prospects of the state, will focus on fostering collaboration, sharing insights, and exploring opportunities among others.
It will also feature a panel discussion session with the experts dissecting various sub-themes of the event such as education and technology and educating Rivers State youths for the digital economy.
Other thematic areas the submit is expected to cover are attracting investment and manufacturing strategies for collaboration and partnership, ease of doing business, impact of Government regulations and blue economy.
The keynote speaker at the investment summit is a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and former Emir of Kano State, Lamido Sanusi.
This is the first major economic summit being hosted by Governor Siminalayi Fubara since he was sworn in last year as Governor of the oil-rich state.
12: 13 The former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, the Chairperson of the Summit, has just finished delivering his speech, calling for attitudinal change among Nigerian leaders, entrepreneurs, and citizens.
The environment, the resources we sit on, we don’t even know how much we have. Then you can understand why there was a scramble for Africa (by the western world). This is a very wealthy continent and this state (Rivers State) is her treasure base,” Mr Duke said, eliciting applause from the audience.
“This conference is so apt at a time where the (Nigerian) nation is seemingly losing her economic grip,” he said of the Rivers Economic & Investment Summit 2024.
Mr Duke told Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State: “If you get it right, you’ll be encouraging others to do the same.”
12: 30 p.m.: The anchorperson for the summit remarked that there are “similarities” between Mr Duke and Governor Fubara in terms of running people-centric programmes and projects.
He talked about how Mr Duke transformed Cross River’s economy through tourism, especially using the popular Calabar Carnival when he was the Governor of Cross River State from 1999 to 2007.
He said in Rivers State, Governor Fubara has just begun the promotion of civil servants in the state after stagnation for 10 years.
“Gratuities and pensions, those who served the state with blood, sweat and tears, now tired and old, they are now happy.
“But you are not restricting it to the civil service. I understand that there is a revolving fund of over N4 billion for over 3,000 businesses, 20,000 housing units… This is an invitation to the private sector that as you come into Rivers State to do business be rest assured that the people of Rivers State are happy and they will welcome you,” the anchorperson said.
