Vice President Kashim Shettima, the former Governor of Central Bank and Emir of Kano, His Highness, Muhammad Sanusi II, are expected to grace the Rivers State Economic Summit scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. The Rivers State Government disclosed that it would use the opportunity of gathering of experts to discuss pressing issues confronting the state, adding that issues of power generation would be one of the core issues to be discussed. The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, disclosed this in Port during a press briefing to intimate pressmen on the forthcoming State Economic Summit that would hold on 22nd and 23rd May, as part of the activities marking the one-year anniversary of the state governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, in office.
Speaking, Johnson disclosed that the first day of the summit would be chaired by Prof. Kingsley Moghalu and co-chaired by Prof. Magnus Kpakol, who are financial experts, while the Second day would be chaired by His Highness, Muhammad Sanusi II, the 14th Emir of Kano. Johnson noted that the thematic areas which are broken into six layers would be Panel, one Inclusive Education and Technology, Empowering the future, Leveraging Education and technology for youths and women empowerment. He said other areas to be looked into included; Manufacturing and Industrialisation, Ease of Doing Business, Impact of Government Regulations, Infrastructure Development and Renewable Energy, Blue Economy, Creative Economy, Economic Growth and Economy and Rural Development and Agriculture.
Johnson noted that the state government has power generation and renewable energy as major aspect of its blueprint, disclosing that the governor of the state had earlier forwarded a bill on building of state-owned power plant to the State House of Assembly for assent. The information commissioner said when the bill is passed that the state would develop its own power plant, adding that the development would encourage business and investment in the state. He said “in the last eight years we have not had this kind of event. We are bringing in experts that will give life to what the state is doing. This summit will be a gathering of experts who will come give a direction as to some of the issues in the areas troubling us as a state.
“We are bringing experts that will bring life into them. It will give direction to where Rivers State is focused in years to come. One of the very first bills this administration sent the assembly, is on Rural Electrification which the cardinal point of is on power and renewable energy. The essence of it is, if the state is able to boost of its own power, then we can drive smaller businesses and help some of our young people in their businesses. If you look at the blue print of his excellency you will see that power is there. He is taking advantage of what the Federal Government did by liberalising electricity sector. This was the reason his Excellency sent that bill.”
