The President of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA) Eze, Sir Mike Elechi, NPOM, JP, FNIM, DSSRS has called for the diversification of the economy of Rivers State from Oil and Gas to other viable sectors of the economy.
He made the clarion call while speaking as a panelist during the second day of the Rivers State Economic & Investment summit held at the Dr. Obi Wali International Conference Centre in Port Harcourt, suggesting that the potential sectors could be in Agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises etc.
According to him, there are clusters of farms at the rural areas in Rivers State patiently waiting for investors, suggesting that government can come in through the ministry of Agriculture to serve as a regulatory body while the private sector move in with their investments for the development of the areas and in return the rural dwellers will then get employed and be engaged meaningfully.
He added that the youth must be trained into skills that can handle sophisticated equipment for the smooth running and assurance of the respective diversification. There were other panelists who also made meaningful contributions at that session, government officials and other stakeholders were also present as Rivers State chatted a new pathway for economic development of the state as shown above.
