NDCCITMA, NDDC Advise Niger Deltans On Investing

The Niger Delta Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Trade, Mines and Agriculture (NDCCITMA) and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) have called on the people of the Niger Delta region to cultivate the culture of investing in the region.

NDCCITMA president, Ambassador Idare Gogo-Ogan and NDDC managing director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt, during the Niger Delta Business Roundtable with the theme, “Creating a New Development Agenda for the Niger Delta Region.”

Gogo-Ogan called on the people of the region to use their collective and individual brains to achieve the desired results.

We must use our brains. If we use our brains collectively and individually, results will come.

“The Niger Delta does not begin from insignificance. It begins with weight. On the last broadly comparable all-state baseline, the nine-state Niger Delta accounted for roughly one-fifth of Nigeria’s economy.

“It remains indispensable to the country’s external earnings, gas potentials, maritime access, environmental stability, and a wide range of productive sectors. Yet the paradox of the region is equally clear: a large endowment has not yet become commensurate with productivity, reliability, value chain, or investor confidence.

“For too long, the Nige Delta has been discussed in languages that are politically familiar but economically insufficient, such as derivation, intervention, grievance, militancy, amnesty, ecological damage, and federal response. None of those languages is false. But none of them is enough to organise the region’s future,” he said.

In his speech, NDDC managing director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, reminded the people of the Niger Delta region that if they fail to invest in the region, outsiders will not come to invest.

“If we don’t invest in this region, outsiders will not invest. If we invest, we create employment opportunities for our people. Let all of us be patriotic to this region,” Ogbuku said.

He stated that, through the business roundtable, regional leaders were creating a platform for practical ideas to translate into actionable strategies.

The NDDC boss said, “By bringing together leaders from business, finance, policy, and development institutions, we are creating a platform where practical ideas can translate into actionable strategies.

“The discussion today will focus on sectors capable of driving long-term growth across the region, including agriculture, energy and gas-based industrialisation, infrastructure development, maritime opportunities within the Blue Economy, environmental restoration, and human capital development.

“These conversations are essential to reposition the Niger Delta as a region of investment opportunity rather than one defined only by challenges.”