NDDC to engage Niger Delta communities in project execution

As part of effort to ensure peace in the coastal communities of Ondo state, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has unfolded plan to engage the communities where projects are sited as supervisors in order to ensure speedy execution of the projects.

The Managing Director of the NDDC, Mr Nsima Ekere who disclosed this during a stakeholders’ meeting in Okitipupa in Okitipupa Local Government area of Ondo State, said all the ongoing projects embarked upon by the commission in the Niger Delta region will be completed soon.

Ekere who was represented by the Director, Project Monitoring and Supervision, Mr Emmanuel Audu-Ohwavborua said the NDDC will henceforth work with communities in picking projects to be executed in their community to enhance sustainability of the projects and the development of the region.

Speaking on the topic “Stakeholders as a focal point to achieving peace and sustainable economic development in the region”, Ekere said if the community and the commission work, plan and act together, there would be economic development, poverty reduction, employment generation and wealth creation in the Niger Delta region.

According to him, the NDDC was championing capacity development and utilization that would further impetus and effectuate the Federal Government’s local content development.

He said “we have pursued and will continue to pursue the development of micro, small and medium scale enterprise development. We have embarked on critical infrastructure development to wit, the construction of several kilometers of roads and bridges that will create economic communication.”

He said apart from the scholarship scheme for the students of the area which was instituted by the NDDC, under the Niger Delta Scholarship Scheme, he assured the people of the area that Ekere rural electrification will be given priority, saying the commission has consistently supported the government’s rural industrialization programme.

Also speaking, the Director of Community and Rural Development, Mr Ibitoye Abosede said the Commission was ready to institutionalized participatory process in development through collaboration with communities and established a reliable procedure for dialogue, grievance handling and ensuring that misunderstanding or conflict do not lead to stoppage of development interventions.

Abosede who said such stakeholders’ forum would hold in nine Niger Delta States said they were poised to ensuring peace in the region so that developments could get to all the communities in the region.

He added that the NDDC and the communities would create a synergy that would ensure that projects are not abandoned because of restiveness of the youth and critical stakeholders in the region.