Nigeria’s North-East Development Commission, NEDC says it is in need of N31 trillion to fully implement its 10 year development masterplan.
Managing Director of the Commission, Mohammed Alkali made this disclosure in Abuja on Thursday, at the weekly briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team.
He said the master plan unveiled on the 1st day of September 2022, was aimed at restoring infrastructure and all forms of development of the North-east region of Nigeria, which has been ravaged by insurgency in the last 13 years.
According to Alkali, “The North-East Development Master Plan is the document we are going to use to develop the region. On the 1st of September, this document was validated here in Abuja, at the International Conference Centre. The plan contains our enterprise value, mission and vision and direction for the region. The plan is four 10 years, 2020-2030
“The North-East Development Master Plan, I can say is an offshoot of what used to be the President Buhari Plan, which he approved in 2016 and it was developed to have an immediate intervention at the peak of the insurgency. For us to execute this plan, in 10 years, we need about N31.05 trillion which is equivalent to about $80 billion.
“At that time, nobody thought the insurgency would be prolonged for 12 or 13 years as it is now. So, in drawing up our master plan, we recognized what is there because most of the certificate data are actually captured so, this is an enhanced version of the Buhari Plan.
“Now, what we will do with the Master plan is very simple. Whatever is contained there aligns with the development plan of member States, sectoral development plan, the roadmap of federal ministries and agencies and the projects being developed by our international partners in the North-East.”
Execution in 4 Phases
The Managing Director started that the plan which has 11 pillars, would be executed in four phases.
“The plan has four implementation phases; recovery and stabilization (2020-2021), renewal phase (2022-2023), thank God now we have relative peace in the North-East so achieving this 2nd phase is a reality, the expansion phase, (2024-2025) and the sustainable growth phase (2022-2030),” he explained.
The Managing Director disclosed that so far, the NEDC has built 1000 housing units for displaced persons in Borno State, which are now being occupied by various families that have resettled there.
He said that at least two projects have also been completed in each of the 112 Local Government Areas of the North-East.
“In early 2020, we came up with what we call a rapid response initiative as a way of responding rapidly in the midst of emergency. So we challenged ourselves on how we can have our presence in the 112 Local Government Areas of the North-East.
“When we spoke to the stakeholders in each of the Local Governments, surprisingly we got over 1000 requests but we streamlined it and at the end of the day, within a year, (2020-2021) we have executed about 650 projects in various fields, at a total cost of about N5.6 billion. Today, in all the Local Governments of the North-East, you must see our presence.
“Almost 80-90 percent of the housing stock in Borno State was destroyed by the insurgents and there was a directive form the President that the NEDC should intervene in the area of building houses for displaced persons in IDP camps and we were given the mandate to do 1000.
“Today I am glad to say that we have done that with water, power and other social amenities. The houses were handed over to the State government and by extension, those houses were given to the displaced persons and if you go to a place called Ngowon about 18 kilometres outside of Maiduguri, Borno State capital, you will see the houses with people occupying them,” he explained.
He said 500 housing units are now being constructed in each of the five other States of the region, which include Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states.
Construction of Mega Schools
Mohammed Alkali further said as a way of encouraging the people to embrace education, mega schools are being constructed across the six States of the North-East.
He also said the NEDC has a lot of plans for the agriculture sector, as a way of reviving the economy of the region.
“If they can be able to go back to agriculture as quickly as possible, we will be able to reverse some of the negative indices. So all what we are doing is deliberate with the incremental purpose of improving the livelihood of the people,” he added.
Confidence Okwuchi
