NDDC presents master plan, targets 200,000 jobs
From Mathias Okwe, Abuja
THE draft Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan (NDRMP) has been presented to the Federal Government with a promise to create 200,000 job yearly in the next four years.
The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Emmanuel Aguariavwodo, who led its other officials to present the document to the Federal Government, said that the implementation of the master plan would commence at the beginning of the 2005 fiscal year.
It was presented through the National Planning Commission (NPC).
Aguariavwodo said: "The draft master plan has reached a critical stage where we are now presenting it to the Federal Government in order to plug into the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).
"We shall be making presentations to stakeholders, state governments in the region, oil companies and donor agencies between September and October to receive their final inputs. After that, we shall come up with the final document, which we will start implementing as from 2005."
He stated that most of the activities of the commission as well as the projects contained in the master plan were in line with the NEEDS document but that he expected the meeting with the Federal Government officials to provide a robust working tool that would meet the national aspirations and the expectations of the people of the Niger Delta.
Already, he disclosed that the NDDC has opened discussions with the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) which has commenced the preparation of the States Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (SEEDS), the state version of NEEDS, on the importance of expanding its activities to include the preparation of SEEDS for all the nine oil producing states of the region.
He added that such a strategy would simplify the work of the commission to properly co-ordinate all development of projects within the region as specify in its legislative mandate.
Aguariavwodo also stated that the NDDC, which inherited many uncompleted projects of the defunct Oil Minerals Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC), has continued to place emphasis on completion of its projects.
The master plan, he disclosed, was a product of a bottom-up consultation with local communities who were given the privilege of telling the commission what they considered as their priority needs in each community, rather than the top-bottom approach of the past through which communities were sometimes provided with facilities that they did not need or were not considered as priorities.
"It captures the present widespread poverty and restiveness in the Niger Delta, and the priorities that needed to be set in the development and integration of the area.
Key sectors of focus in its activities as identified in the draft were infrastructure, environment, agriculture, health, education, private sector development, as well as social development," he said.
Responding, the Permanent Secretary of the National Planning Commission, Dr. Babangida Aliyu expressed satisfaction with the comprehensive nature of the document.
Aliyu, who described it as timely stated that the era where the Federal Government and oil companies gave money to community leaders who in turn never passed same to the communities was over and warned the NDDC that it must not fail in its assignment.
He declared: "Funds spent by your commission must be tied to specific projects and your board and management must be accountable for all funds released to it through profitable investment in the provision of infrastructure and in the development of human capital in the region."
Aliyu also charged the NDDC to be equitable in the allocation of its projects across the Niger Delta area and among the nine oil producing states, because as he puts it, the best way to end the restiveness in the oil rich Niger Delta is through satisfactory utilisation of resources available to the commission.
