FG Urged to Increase Intervention Funds for Rivers

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The Rivers State Ministry of Women Affairs has urged the federal government and donor agencies to consider the state as a special case in allocating intervention funds.

The state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Dr. Roseline Uranta, made the call when a delegation of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja Cares Coordinating Programme paid a courtesy visit to her in her office in Port Harcourt.

The commissioner said: “I am informed that your visit is based on the fact that the State Care Coordinating Unit is doing well in service delivery hence the visit.”

She further said the state government under the leadership of the state Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, “is committed to the welfare need of our people, and is shown in his first 100 days in office.”

Uranta also said the state, being the ‘treasure base of the country’ would continue to be hospitable to visitors at all times.

 The commissioner commended those behind the establishment of the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Stimulus in all the states of the federation, stressing that this had reduced poverty level to some extent.

She said: “As we continue to have increase of people living below the poverty level, the present administration will do all within its power to change the narratives for good.”

In her speech, the state Technical Head of the Cares Coordinating Unit, Mrs. Imaonyari Ephraim-George, thanked the commissioner for receiving the delegation within a very short notice.

Ephraim-George said among the comity of states, Rivers State had performed creditably, and “I am not surprised the FCT office pick the state.”

She said the Ministry of Women Affairs, being a major partner of the project, houses three delivery units which include the Livelihood Grant, the Social Transfer, and the Road Maintenance.

Earlier in his speech, the leader of the (FCT) Abuja Cares Coordinating Programme, Mr. Uba Bala, explained that they are in the state to understudy the operations of the state unit with a view to improving their office in Abuja.

Bala said it had been a rewarding experience for the three days the delegation was in the state.