Business
NDYC Seeks NDDC Commercialisation … Uncompleted Projects Completion
A non-governmental organization, the Niger Delta Youth Coalition, (NDYC), is set to write to the National Assembly for amendment of the Act establishing the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) to enable it go into the establishment of large scale farming, to meet up its huge financial needs in developing the region.
Founder and National Co-ordinator of the NDYC, Prince Emmanuel Samuel Ogba, who disclosed this in an interview in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, said if amended, it would enable the NDDC to be commercialized in various sectors of its activities, particularly in agriculture, for internal generation of funds to augment its soaring financial needs.
Prince Ogba, an economist and politician, said to this end, his organization would send a private bill to the National Assembly seeking to amend the 2001 Act establishing the NDDC.
He noted that with the present economic challenges in the country, and to provide food for the populace, there is urgent need for the NDDC to be empowered by law to go into agriculture.
Ogba said, “if this happens, it would also provide more employment opportunities for the youths, as most of them would work in the farms, including staff of the Commission”.
The NDYC boss expressed the belief that such additional funds would enable the NDDC to partner with other relevant organizations in agriculture and also help in completing uncompleted projects executed by the NDDC several years ago by past managements of the Commission.
Prince Ogba recalled that by analysis some years back, the NDDC required about five trillion Naira as against a budget of N1.9trillion to complete numerous uncompleted projects of the Commission, adding that such situation was an impediment to its efforts to meet the increasing challenges to accomplish an integrated development of the peoples of the Niger Delta region.
He, however, applauded the present management of the NDDC led by Samuel Ugbuku for carrying out the completion of projects that were not completed by the commission.
He noted that with the NDDC going into food production and processing of farm produce, in a space of three years, the Niger Delta region would have enough food for the region to feed its over thirty million people and the rest of the country.
The current management of the NDDC has completed and commissioned a considerable number of uncomplete projects across the nine states in the region with its mandate to facilitate the rapid, even, and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful, to offer a lasting solution to the socio-econimic difficulties of the Niger Delta region.