Rivers Monthly Savings, Intact – Amaechi

Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amechi, says the monthly one billion naira savings for the state are still intact and aimed for the future.

Speaking at a dinner hosted by the Nigeria Breweries Plc during the Rivers Investors Forum (RIVINVEST) which ended at the weekend in Port Harcourt, Amaechi said the state had received about N1.5 trillion from federal allocations in the past four years, but dismissed claims that the state had started receiving payment from the recovered oil wells from Akwa-Ibom State.

Dismissing claims by critics that the monthly savings were false, Rt. Hon. Amaechi said, “we began to save a billion naira a month so that our children will have savings that we have made for them.”

He urged those criticising the policy to verify the account from Stanbic/IBTC Bank and Skye Bank.

Amaechi argued that the huge financial allocations so far received had been expended judiciously, “when you get the money you sit down and change the course of the history of your place,” he submitted.

He stated that the state had invested so much in education, health and ICT, stressing that the government took over the payment of primary school teachers to check the dwindling educational fortunes of the state.

He hinted that with the huge strides made by his administration in raising power generation through the various gas power plants, the state would be able to sell power once the federal government de-monopolised the sector.

The governor averred that the power sector should be exploited by would-be investors as the state provides the budding environment for businesses.

Speaking earlier on the topic, “Fixing State Finances”, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBO), Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi urged state governments to seek revenue sources outside oil, adding that “when you think of oil and gas, think of other things. We need to start thinking out of the box.”

The CBN boss charged Nigerian leaders to create sustainable sources of revenues, warning that the global economy had been unstable over the years because states finances had been wobbling as well.

L-R: Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan and and wife of Rivers State Governor, Dame Judith Amaechi, during the Rivers State Investors’ Forum, in Port Harcourt, last Friday.