Harnessing Positive Energies Of Niger Delta, Key To Sustainable Development – NDDC Boss
The Interim Sole Administrator of Niger Delta Commission (NDDC) Hon Efiong Akwa has said the key to sustainable development of the Niger Delta Region lies in Harnessing Positive Energies within the Region.
He said this during the ” Niger Delta Small and Medium Scale Enterprise Summit 2021″ which held at Aztec Acriun Port Harcourt, organized by the Niger Delta Young Professionals Forum and co-sponsored by NDDC.
Akwa in his speech said ” In that interval of over sixty years, the Niger Delta has witnessed many intervention programmes and innumerable workshops, summits and communiques, each designed to address the rampart poverty, disease, broken social and physical infrastructure prevalent in the region. In human growth terms, and this is not funny, the efforts to address, in a fundamental and far-reaching manner, the tragic underdevelopment of the Niger Delta, ought to be, at 64 years, a grandparent by now.
He further said “It can be said, and with good reason, that NDDC has not duly fulfilled its mandate, some twenty years after its establishment. ” Without question, the Niger Delta region is rich in oil and gas wealth. But her greater wealth lies, I believe, in agriculture, where the people are predominantly farmers and fishermen.
Another important step open to stakeholders is for the region to revisit and renew conversations around revitalising the Niger Delta Master Plan, so that regional development would be captured within a shared plan. This will not only ensure that the resolutions reached here will transform into the necessary next steps that will usher the Niger Delta of our collective dreams, it will also ensure that we work with one integrated and indivisible vision and purpose.
He finally thanked the organizers for putting together this timely summit, and promised that NDDC will do all they can to support Small, and Medium Scale Enterprise to ensure the economy of the region is diversified.
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