2021 Budget Provides Gratuities For Retirees, RSG Confirms

The Rivers State Government says it has made provision for the payment of pensions and gratuities for state retirees in the 2021 budget.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Barrister Isaac Kamalu, who disclosed this at a one-day public consultation on the 2021 Budget organised by the ministry in Port Harcourt, yesterday, also said that the ongoing recruitment of 5,000 youths into the State Civil Service was captured in the budget.
Kamalu, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Mrs Titilola Cline, at the event, said the state government would revive the Rivers State Micro Finance Agency with a view to ensuring that young entrepreneurs in the state get access to credit facilities to finance their businesses.
Another key focus of the budget, according to the commissioner, includes improving the agricultural sector through the distribution of seedlings and other farm inputs to farmers while the cassava processing plant at Afam would employ 3,000 youths.
Kamalu also said that all regional hospitals would be properly equipped to deliver quality health care services to the people of the state.
Also, in a keynote address entitled: “Budget And Realities of Covid-19”, the commissioner said that the Covid-19 pandemic dealt a terrible blow on the implementation of the 2020 budget.
He further said that the Rivers State Development Plan adopted in 2017 was meant to better the lives of the citizenry, while efforts were also being made to boost the internally generating revenue profile of the state in the upcoming year.
The commissioner said that time has come for the people to play active role in the realization of the goal of the budget by not only investing but patronizing locally-made goods in the state, adding that by so doing, unemployment would be reduced, while more money would be ploughed into the coffers of the government.
Kamalu described the forum with stakeholders as an evidence of transparency of what the government was doing as far as budget preparations were concerned, assuring that imputes of key stakeholders would be reflected in the budget.
A cross section of participants, who spoke at the forum, described the provision of money for pension and gratuities for retirees of the state civil service as a welcome development.
They also called for more attention to be given to the agricultural sector, while urbanization programme should be extended across the 23 local government areas of the state to decongest Port Harcourt.
They also commended the government for the provision of employment opportunities for 5,000 youths into the state civil service.