By Magnus Chukwudi Port Harcourt

The Niger Delta Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Trade, Mines and Agriculture, NDCCITMA, backed by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has released cheques worth N1.5 billion to 1,500 people to boost businesses in the Niger Delta region.

Speaking during the flag off of anInvestments Partnership Scheme in Port Harcourt, the Chairman of NDCCITMA, Ambassador Idaere Gogo-Ogan, said the fund represents the first phase of disbursement to empower beneficiaries in the region.

He noted that the nano group of beneficiaries, the poorest of the poor, would receive 200,000 naira each, while the micro, small-scale and medium-scale categories of the scheme would receive N3 million, N7 million, and N20 million, respectively, to boost their investments.

He stated: ” Our core mandate is to strive to reduce poverty in the region. We are optimistic that our partnership with a strong institution like NDDC will enable us to reach the poorest of the poor, small-scale businesses, and lift over 2,000 people in the region out of poverty.

We believe that robust development comes not only from the top but also from the bottom. So, when you aggregate all the categories, you can begin to see the gains of genuine economic prosperity.”

Gogo-Ogan added that the beneficiaries will have the advantage of paying a low interest rate of 0.6 per cent, noting that it would enable the Chambers to reach out to more people in the region.

He assured the beneficiaries of the investment scheme that the Chambers of Commerce would adopt a mentorship approach, providing financial support and promotions to their businesses to enable them to compete favourably with other regions in the country.

Also speaking at the occasion, the NDDC Director of Commercial and Industrial Development and Chairman of the Implementation Committee, Mrs. Lyna Okara, commended the leadership of the NDDC for establishing a body that would bring together those with the vision to grow businesses.

She maintained that the flag-off of the investment partnership scheme was timely and an indication that the region was on the path of rapid development. She enjoined the people of the Niger Delta region to take advantage of the scheme to develop and enlarge their businesses.

A Representative of the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, SMEDAN, Mrs. Olalek Rasheed, urged entrepreneurs to ensure proper documentation to enable them to access the funds. She also advised against diverting the funds to other non-economic activities. ###.

By Magnus Chukwudi, Port Harcourt

The family of Arise tv presenter late Miss Somtochukwu Maduagwu, has appreciated the people of Nigeria, for encouragement and consolation, as they mourned their daughter.

The immediate senior brother to the deseased Mr Maduagwu, so greeted, at Corpus Christi Cathederal, Port Harcourt, yesterday, during the requim mass.

Maduagwu admitted that the loss of his sister is a big blow to the family, but they had taken solace in the Almighty God, using the opportunity too, to urge the parents to accept their daughter’s sudden death, as the will of God.

The officiating Priest Very Rev fr Martin Amadi and the other Rev Nwakor in the gospel preachings, affirmed that what makes the believer is what he/she should be remembered for.

They described the late Somtochukwu as a good, great and strong believer and woman of faith, assuring she is resting in the Lord.

A staff of Arise, on behalf of the media firm, vouched that the very time, she worked with them, was very fruitful, and prayed God, to grant her eternal rest in His bosom.

Diginitries from various walks of life graced the occasion.

By David Owei,Bayelsa
Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has urged the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and other federal agencies to recalibrate their recruitment policies to promote fairness, justice and equity in line with the principles of federalism.

Governor Diri, stated this when the Assistant Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Zone G, Mrs Abolupe Oladoyin Bewaji, paid a courtesy visit to Government House, Yenagoa, on Monday.

The Governor who was represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, decried the subsisting practice where job recruitment at the federal level is based on the number of local government areas in each of the 36 states in the country, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

He lamented that Bayelsa has always been short-changed whenever employment slots were allocated across the various states of the federation as it has only eight local government areas, which is the fewest in the country.

Describing the policy as unjust, undemocratic and skewed against the foremost oil and gas producing state, Governor Diri stressed the need for federal government to urgently address the anomaly with a view to giving Bayelsa a befitting sense of belonging.

He also called on the Nigeria Immigration Service to make Bayelsa a center for the printing of passports to save the manhours and other resources currently expended for producing the document outside the state.

The Bayelsa helmsman who commended the Minister of Interior and the Comptroller General of Immigration for some of the ongoing innovations and reforms in the Service in recent years, he pledged his administration’s preparedness to collaborate with the NIS to achieve set goals.

His words: “First of all, I like to commend the Minister of Interior as well as the Comptroller General of Immigration for the innovations and reforms which we are now seeing, especially in the area of issuing of visas and passports and diplomatic reciprocity.

“Clearly, we can see that you are doing fairly well on the land. But I think you need to do much more on the waterways because a lot of people are also coming into the country through the waterways..

“As a state, we are willing and ready to collaborate with you to carry out effective services in the state. We will be happy to support you provide the marine unit of immigration.

“Let me also use this opportunity to raise some of our concerns. First, we want you to urgently address the issue of printing passports outside our state. We want the production of the passports to be done here to reduce the manhour and other costs.

“We are also concerned about the way job recruitment is being done in the Immigration and other federal agencies. We are being short-changed because most of the time it is done based on the number of local government areas in the states.

“So if you are giving 10 employment slots to each local government in the country, there are states that will get more than 400 or 300 slots, while Bayelsa will have only 80 because it has only 8 local government areas. So where is the fairness?

“That is why I’m appealing for some kind of concession. Bayelsa should be given additional slots whenever you carry out recruitment your recruitment exercises.”

Earlier, the Assistant Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Zone G, Headquarters, Mrs Abolupe Oladoyin Bewaji, said she was in Bayelsa to seek areas of collaboration with the state government that will be mutually beneficial.

According to her, Bayelsa State is a significant contributor to the economy of Nigeria that deserves special attention, assuring that the Immigration Service will continue to be committed to professionalism and patriotism in their partnership with the state.

ACG Bewaji, who appreciated the Bayelsa Government for its support to security agencies, identified border security, community engagement as well as seamless issuance of passports and visas as some of the possible areas of collaboration between the NIS and the state.

The Assistant Comptroller General of Immigration of Zone G, comprising Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Enugu and Anambra states was accompanied by some top ranking officers of the zone, including the state Comptroller of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr Festus Atteh, on the courtesy visit.