From Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State House of Assembly has approved Governor Nyesom Wike’s request of N9 billion loan facility from a second generation bank.
Speaker of the House of Assembly, Dabotoru Dima Adams, while approving the governor’s request at an emergency sitting, yesterday, said the loan was to fund renovation of general hospitals and secondary schools across the state.
Adams said the loan would be serviced with the N3 billion yearly earnings from the government’s investments in Indoroma.
The lawmakers, in their various submissions, said they approved the request because it would be used to fund the capital projects in the 2016 budget.
Meanwhile, Deputy Governor, Dr. Ipalibo Harry Banigo, has identified lack of effective family plannings, as part of the causes of population explosion.
In a statement through her Press Secretary, Paul Damgbor, the deputy governor noted that with the present state of the nation’s economy, parents should produce only the number of children they could adequately cater for “in order not to expose them to inhuman treatment such as child labour, child trafficking, as well as other anti-social vices.”
Banigo said with ‘Investing in the teenage girls’, as the theme of this year’s World Population Day, the challenges facing teenage girls should be tackled with renewed zeal and vigour, so that their rights could be protected.
She expressed concern over the rise in the country’s population and emphasized the urgent need for government at all levels, to come up with measures that would address the situation.