The North East Development Commission in Nigeria (NEDC), says it hopes to execute at least five hundred projects in the next ten years for the development of the region.
Managing Director of the Commission, Mohammed Alkali disclosed this on Wednesday after the Board of NEDC paid a visit to Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said the Board presented its master plan for the next ten years to VP Shettima.
“We’re here today with the whole Board of the Commission to meet with the Vice President. As you can recall, on August 9, this new Board was inaugurated by him and today we came to give him highlights of our master plan. That is the document we’re going to use in delivering our mandate in the North-East so that he would appreciate what we want to do in the next four years.
“So he also gave us some guidance, and also it’s good for us all to tell him our challenges. So basically, we’re here today to brief him on what we’re going to do and the way forward with those documents.
“Which was prepared over almost two years and it covers almost all the things we need to do in the region. And as I said earlier it has phases, it has the project, it has 529 projects to cover within the period,” he stated.
Alkali said the master plan covers various sectors of the economy, all geared towards revamping the region that had suffered a lot from the insurgency.
“Well, the master plan when you read our acts said we should have a master plan for 10 years. And that master plan covers all our activities for humanitarian development and peace and whatever you think about in the North East is covered in the master plan,” he said.
The Managing Director further stated that the master plan has four phases that would be implemented fully.
“The master plan has four phases for implementation. Starting from the low-hanging fruits, that will stabilize the situation, up to the point of development that will encourage people to come and invest in the North East then we have 11 pillars; these 11 pillars cover all the sectors you can think of; education, health, agriculture, and so on. And also have one very important sector we call it connected region. That is a cross-state kind of pillar that will get us to do things that will benefit all the six states in the region, for instance, if you want to do regional airline, regional railway whatever you can think of is there in the master plan, which is a comprehensive document,” said the Managing Director.
Alkali said it took over two years to produce the master plan.
