RSSDA Seeks Increased Funding

The Executive Director and Chief  Executive Officer, of the Rivers State
Sustainable Development Agency, (RSSDA), Mr Noble Pepple, says that funding
remained one of the agency’s greatest challenges.

Mr Pepple made the revelation while presenting the 2011
annual report recently in Port Harcourt.

He said every opportunity was used in 2011 to build
consciousness in the staff to enable the agency to achieve economic
development, employment generation and social transformation among others.

According to him, top on the agency’s list of priorities
during the past year was the state governor’s special overseas scholarship
scheme.

He said the scheme was further improved and now has in place
a much better administrative system which includes a post-graduate award
scheme, four new destination countries including the USA and China and an
in-country A-level preparatory programe.

The RSSDA boss said significant progress was made on a
number of new and ongoing initiatives, especially those under agriculture and
business development port folio.

He named them to include the Rivers State Cassava
Initiative, the state-wide farmers registration exercise, the deep-sea
fish-cage aquaculture project and the integrated poultry and livestock
development project at Onne among others.

In addition, the RSSDA boss said it undertook a feasibility
study of the new Agro-Industrial Development project, a $140 million
public-private partnership initiative with the LR Group of Israel.

He said the project which would be sited at Etche would
develope a large mechanised  commercial
farm which will commence in the second half of 2012 and be completed in 24
months time.

According to the report, towards the end of 2011, special
outreach events for charity homes, widows, people living with disability and
school children were undertaken.

He revealed that over N6 billion was spent in 2011 on these
programmes and other such services through the Human Capital Development and
Agro-Allied Business Development divisions.

He reiterated that majority of the projects particularly in
agriculture and business development and the associated partnerships were in
their early stages, even as some have already started to show results.

“As we move into 2012 and beyond, we will be expecting these
projects to deliver visible and measurable results that impact lives and the
economy or the state”, he said.