NDDC to end reliance on IOCs, FG for project funding ...Plans PPP arrangement

L-R: Mr. Osagie Okunbor, Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC and Mr. Mike Sangster, Managing Director of TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limted during a meeting of the OPTS of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce recently.

Port Harcourt — The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, says it will not continue to rely on international oil companies, IOCs, and the Federal Government to raise funds for development projects in the Niger Delta region.

NDDC Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, who disclosed this, said the Commission was now rebranded for sustainable development, stating that the agency was adopting the public-private partnerships, PPP, arrangement to drive development in the Niger Delta.

Ogbuku, speaking during an executive management and staff meeting at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, announced that a summit was in the offing to enable stakeholders explore opportunities for collaboration.

He said the agency would not relent in its PPP campaign to bring sustainable development to the Niger Delta region.

“We intend to leverage on our PPP initiative during the summit which will take place in April. It will help us to showcase what we can offer and show the world the future of NDDC. We cannot continue to rely on international oil companies and the Federal Government to raise funds for development projects. We intend to show the world that NDDC has been rebranded.

“We will take the campaign to all relevant organisations. Last week, we were at the meeting of the Oil Producers Trade Section, OPTS, of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lagos. Henceforth, NDDC will be attending the OPTS quarterly meetings,” the NDDC boss said.

According to him, the Commission will also focus on capacity building for youths in the region. “We are going to focus on youth development programmes, we have come up with a new concept of working with the Niger Delta Chamber of Commerce in the training of our youths and young entrepreneurs.

“We will show the world that we have young entrepreneurs. The various chambers of commerce will

help us to make the programme sustainable. We will focus on empowering young people because government cannot employ everybody,” he explained.

On NDDC’s commitment to its contractors, Ogbuku affirmed that the Commission was engaging them to arrive at practicable ways of liquidating their debts, saying: “We have been meeting with the contractors and gradually all legitimate debts will be defrayed.”

The NDDC boss said there was a need for reform within the Commission in order to bring it in line with the NDDC Establishment Act. “We are reorganising the directorates to bring the number to only 13 provided for in the Act,” he said.