Over 2000 Rivers and non-Rivers indigenes have so far benefited from the Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi Special Overseas scholarship programme, a scheme designed to boost human capital development in Rivers State and the country.

This was disclosed recently at the maiden “Dissecting The Amaechi Administration” media briefing series in Government House, Port Harcourt where the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), Mr Nobel Pepple spoke for the Governor on the activities of the agency, created by the Amaechi administration.

*Amaechi

“In the area of human capital development, we have done a lot to ensure we deliver on the Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s special overseas scholarship programme…. Basically, the programme is the Governor’s vision for delivering more and quality human capital development for the state, and what we have tried to do through that programme is place some of our young men and women, some of the brightest we have in the state in some of the best schools overseas. Currently, we have over 2000 of such students who have benefitted . They are in 10 countries of the world including the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Singapore, India and Netherlands”, Pepple said.

“The students study Medicine, Engineering, the Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, especially Economics and of course Information Communication Technology (ICT).  The Scholarship is fully funded including their upkeep, school fees, accommodation, medical; all they need to go through the programme is provided by the governor through RSSDA ”, Pepple added.

He further disclosed that the Scholarship programme is perhaps the most transparent and most open in the country.

On Agriculture and Small and Medium Enterprises, the RSSDA Boss said, “over the last few years, we have supported work across the State in promoting agricultural development.  One of it is the Songhai Farm which sits on a 314-hectare land, built in partnership with Songhai International in Benin Republic.  It is an integrated world class farm which provides opportunities for enterprise development, research in agriculture: new techniques, new varieties of farm products, and also provides an opportunity for demonstration on how new farming methods and technology is done today”.

Pepple maintained that the focus of the Songhai Farm project is “to use it as a means of bringing young people into an agricultural system that is focused on using technology to drive food production…. The Songhai project is a method for job creation, food security as well as rural development”.

On job creation, Pepple explained that the RSSDA had created job opportunities for all Rivers State people through Small and Medium Enterprises.

“We have been able to help through Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) initiatives to create opportunities for jobs beyond what is available in the formal sector.  In that area, we have before now been sending young men and women from the state to different skills and vocational training programmes both in the country and overseas”.

He also said that the Rivers State Government has entered into a partnership with the International Centre for Micro-Finance and Social Enterprises to set up an institute in the State to fill up the unpleasant capacity gap experienced across Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) both in the State and across the country.

Pepple further revealed that the Amaechi administration has completed a workmanship and technical training centre in Bori,  which will commence full operations in April.

He said the Agency tries to blend the technical knowledge provided for students of technical and vocational training with entrepreneurial skills so that they can access credit and start business of their own on graduation and not wait to be employed.  Also, he disclosed that the Amaechi administration will soon organize job fairs in the State to facilitate meeting of employers of labour and the unemployed as part of government’s effort to promote employment.

“The Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA) intends to pursue a job fair.  We want to have two job fairs actually this year which we hope will bring together employers of labour and the unemployed because sometimes we see that one of the big challenges in employment matters is information gap.  When people do not know about recruitment exercises, they are not able to access opportunities from those exercises”.

Pepple said the purpose for the job fairs would be to give the unemployed in the state opportunities of getting job information and interacting with employers of labour.