Rivers
RVHA Pledges Support To State-Owned Media Houses
The Rivers State House
of Assembly says it will give a legal support to efforts that will enhance efficiency and the growth of State media houses to international standards.
Chairman of the House Committee on Information and Training, Hon. Samuel Ogeh gave the assurance on Wednesday, when the committee visited the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation (RSNC) as part of its oversight function in Port Harcourt.
The Committee Chairman, who expressed satisfaction with the new policy unveiled by the management of the corporation, stressed the need for the State Government to do everything within its resources to improve the only State-owned media outfit in the area of modern information technology.
While inspecting the facilities in the corporation, the lawmaker blamed the Rotimi Amaechi administration for wasting enormous resources on Rotary Machine for the corporation without the component units to make the machine useful for its purpose before the commissioning.
According to him, commissioning of project means everything about the project is ready for use, adding that the past administration hurriedly commissioned the multi-million Naira machines that were not completely in order.
The House Committee Chairman who commended the management of the Corporation for the maintenance of the facilities in the face of financial challenges, harped on the timely and wide circulation of The Tide Newspapers for readers globally.
Accordingly to him, the Assembly’s visit to the corporation was to have first hand information on the challenges facing the organization and proffer legislative support and advice.
The lawmaker who noted that The Tide Newspapers was the only image making newspaper that has been competing with the national papers in Nigeria and beyond, tasked the management to sustain the tempo by projecting the policies and programmes of the State Government for good governance.
Earlier, the Acting General Manager of the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation (RSNC), Chief Soye Wilson Jamabo said the corporation’s new policy would stabilize and ensure the growth of The Tide to meet international standards.
The Acting General Manager said the corporation’s new policy is to ensure timely and wide circulation of The Tide Newspapers with less expenditure on transportation.
He also hinted that an e-library and branch offices in Lagos, Abuja and beyond with lighter machines to ease circulation would be ready soon.
Jamabo, who regretted the Corporation’s dwindling internally generated revenue (IGR) blamed the delay in going back to daily production to insufficient funds to acquire multi-million Naira components the functioning of the Rotary Machine.
He appealed to all arms of government in the state to patronize the State Media Houses to grow, and thanked the Rivers State House of Assembly for its concern and readiness to support the Corporation to improve on its standard in line with global best practices.
Enoch Epelle