Rivers seeks FG’s Sovereign Guarantee on European Bank Loan for N69.8 billion Integrated Medical factory

Rivers State is set to approach the Federal Government for its sovereign guarantee to help it (RVSG) secure a European Bank loan to complete its N69.8 billion Integrated Medical Industries (IMI), a massive plant in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

The integrated medical products factory, a wholly Rivers Government owned facility, which produces medical equipments including syringes, would upon completion, produce one billion syringes annually.

It was also gathered that the factory would create at least 3,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state.

The foreign loan amount sought by Governor Wike administration on the IMI was not immediately known, at a time Nigeria was facing economic downturn.

Governor Nyesom Wike has directed the State Attorney-General and commissioners for Finance and Health to liaise with the managers of the Integrated Medical Industries, to conclude work on the application to the Federal Government for the required sovereign guarantee.

Facilitator of the IMI, Ikedife Uba said the project is 70 percent completed, with all the relevant machines already fabricated by manufacturers in Europe.

Uba said the new phase of the company would be the biggest in the country, and would produce one billion syringes and other critical consumables annually that would stem the tide of medical imports; and give Nigerians access to high standard medical products.

He said the total project’s cost was N69.8 billion, with the Rivers Government already expended N35.7 billion, and a balance of N34.1 billion left to be spent on the project to get it completed and put to use.

Governor Wike, after inspecting facilities at the Integrated Medical Industries (IMI), said the state government would apply to Federal Government for the required sovereign guarantee for the European Bank loan to complete the project.
The governor said the state government would take appropriate measures to complete the company.

He expressed satisfaction with the steps taken by the managers of the project to sustain it for the production of relevant medical consumables.

“My motivation to further invest in this project is the fact that it will conserve foreign exchange and stop the import of some key medical consumables,” the governor said.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Health, Theophilus Odagme said the project was quite strategic to Nigeria’s health sector.

 

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