Date: 2017-02-10

The Kwara State House of Assembly has commended Gov. Abdul Fatah Ahmed for his commitment towards repositioning the three state owned Media Houses.

The Chairman House Committee on Information, Youth, Sports, Tourism and Culture, Hon. Saheed Popoola made the commendation, during the appearance of the State Commissioner for Information, Sole Administrator and other chief executives of the media houses before the legislators to defend their 2017 budget estimates.

Hon. Popoola explained with delight that the current repositioning of the media outfits by the State Government would go along way to make them respond to contemporary challenges and compete favourably with other media outfits in the country.

He assured that the legislature would give the needed support in realising the vision of the state Governor in the information sector, stressing that information dissemination was germaine to any vibrant democracy.

The State Commissioner for Information and Communication Alh. Mahmud Babatunde Ajeigbe expressed confidence that his Ministry would achieve its N115m revenue target, if the required logistics and infrastructure were provided for his Ministry and its agencies by the state government.

The Sole Administrator of the Media Houses and Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Communication, Dr. Muideen Akorede had enumerated the efforts of the State Government towards repositioning the media house for effective performance.

He however identified the current devaluation of the naira as a major challenge impeding the delivery of state of art equipment for the media organizations and solicited the support of the legislature in transforming the vision of the state Governor of repositioning the state owned media outfits, for better performance into reality.

Other members who spoke, praised the ingenuity of the Sole Administrator towards ensuring that the owned media houses measured up to required standard. Meanwhile, the house says it will ensure that the construction of road leading to Owu fall in Owa Kajola was accommodated in this year's budget to enable the state realised its tourism potentials.

This followed the presentation by the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Culture and Tourism Dr. Rhoda Ajiboye that the State was endowed with enough tourism potentials to make the self sustaining, but were yet to be tapped, due to lack of basic infrastructure and required logistics in the affected sites.