BY HIS EXCELLENCY SIR SIMINALAYI FUBARA GSSRS,GOVERNOR, RIVERS STATE,(13TH DECEMBER 2024).
1. Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen.
2.It is my pleasure to be before this hallowed chamber today to present our state’s budget estimates of Revenues and Expenditures for the fiscal year 2024.
3.Before I proceed with my presentation, I wish to, again, thank God for the special opportunity to serve our people as their elected Governor.
4.We thank our dear President, His Excellency @officialABAT GCFR for his special interest in the peace & progress of Rivers State & the bold steps he has taken to revamp the nation’s economy and sustainable development across the country.
5.We are also grateful to the good people of Rivers State & the progressive members of the State House of Assembly for your continuing support & prayer for the success of our administration.
6.We assure you that we will never take your trust & confidence for granted. We will remain faithful to our oath of office and do the best we can to advance the aspirations of our people for good governance, peace, security, and inclusive development.
7.Our spirit is high; our determination is forever strong as we remain focused on delivering on our mandate in an honest, accountable, just, & fair manner to all parts of the State & all segments of society.
8.Under our watch, no part of the State will be neglected in our development agenda; no one will be left behind in the distribution of resources and opportunities.
9.We reaffirm our commitment to working closely with the State House of Assembly to fulfil all our promises and take Rivers State to greater heights of peace, progress, & prosperity.
10. Mr Speaker, recall that we launched the construction of the Port Harcourt Dual Carriage Ring Road as a flagship project to accelerate the socio-economic development of our State. Julius Berger has since mobilized to the site and work on this multi-billion-naira project has begun.
11. In line with our consolidation mantra, we have in the last six months, completed many of the uncompleted projects we inherited from the immediate past administration, including roads, hospitals, and schools, while those not yet completed, have reached advanced stages of completion.
12. Some of the completed roads include Oyigbo – Okoloma Road, Alode – Onne Road, Botem-Gbene-Ue-Hiro Road, Mgbodahia internal roads, Ogbo-Uhugbogo-Udiemude Road, Omoku-Aligwu-Krigene road, Eneka internal roads, Ogbakiri internal roads, & Omagwa internal roads.
13. Other roads, which construction is proceeding very well include Ahoada-Omoku dualization, Emohua-Tema junction dualization, Umuakali – Eberi road, Alode-Ebubu-Eteo junction road, Egbu-Ehuda internal roads, Elelenwo internal roads, Rumuepirikom internal roads, phase 2, Bori city internal roads, the Ngo section of the Ogoni-Andoni-Opobo unity road, & the Opobo ring road and electrification projects.
14. On education, we have delivered Government Comprehensive Secondary School, Borokiri, Government Secondary School, Eneka, Government Secondary School, Emohua, Government Secondary School, Okehi, Comprehensive Secondary School, Alesa – Eleme, Government Secondary School, Ataba, and the 10,000 capacity University of Port Harcourt Auditorium. The hostel and auditorium projects at the Yenagoa campus of the Nigerian Law School are also almost completed.
15. Our commitment to healthcare delivery remains strong. Already, we have delivered the Professor Kelson Harrison Hospital, the Dental, Maxillofacial, Ear Nose Throat & Ophthalmology Hospital, and several primary healthcare centres across the state.
16. To accelerate the delivery of affordable housing, we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TAF Global Africa and turned the sod for the phased development of 20,000 units of houses in the State.
17.This is another signature project of our administration, which is targeted at creating new model cities within Obio/Akpor and Ikwerre Local Government Areas of the State with enormous socio-economic benefits to the State and our people.
18. On sports development, we have opened the Real Madrid Football Academy for full academic and football training activities with the admission of the first batch of students. We have also rehabilitated the indoor basket hall and pitch at Niger Street, Port Harcourt.
19.We are poised to stimulate industrialization by creating an enabling business environment to attract investors to invest in the different sectors of the State’s economy.
20.To this end, plans are underway to organize the first Rivers State Investment Summit in decades to work out an investment and industrialization road map for the State.
21.We have also approved three bills: the Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency Bill, the Rivers State Youth Entrepreneurship Development Trust Fund Bill, the Rivers State Electricity Bill, and the Rivers State New Towns Development Bill, which are critical to accelerating investments, job creation, energy security, economic empowerment, and the socio-economic advancement of the State when passed into law.
22.Furthermore, we have concluded arrangements to launch the N4,000,000,000.00 seed fund in partnership with the Bank of Industry to support small and medium-scale enterprises across the State at a single-digit interest rate.
23.We have also entered into a memorandum of understanding with an investor to build a modern spare parts market in the State.
24.We appreciate the relevance and importance of the civil service to the development of the State through effective implementation of government policies and programmes.
25.Consequently, our commitment is to strengthen and motivate the civil service for optimal and responsible performance through regular promotions, payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities, and the provision of a good working environment.
26.Accordingly, we are happy to report that we are up to date in the payment of salaries and pensions to our civil servants and concluded the promotion exercise for our mainstream civil servants and other staff, except those without functional governing boards, such as the secondary school teachers and health to legally conduct the exercise, will be done as soon as we constitute the governing boards.
27.We have restored water and installed new lifts at the State’s Secretariat complex to improve sanitation and ease access to the higher floors of the complex.
28.Since we came on board, we have spent over 6 billion naira to pay the gratuities backlog to retired civil servants. Again, our commitment is to ensure that we clear all areas of gratuities owed to civils by previous administrations.
29.Also, the recruitment exercise of 10,000 workers into the State’s civil service is almost completed and successful candidates will receive their engagement letters as soon as the report from the State’s Civil Service Commission is ratified by the State Executive Council.
30.Finally, we have worked with security agencies, local governments, and community leaders to keep our State peaceful, safe, and secure. This is an achievement we will continue to further improve and sustain throughout the yuletide and beyond.
31.Mr Speaker, I have highlighted some of our achievements in policies and projects as a relatively young administration implementing a budget and programmes we inherited from the immediate past administration.
32.As we government, we are satisfied with the modest mileage we have gained in implementing our blueprint despite the prevailing economic hardship and the political challenges and distractions we faced since the inception of our government.