North-East Development Projects Hit N1.5trn — Commission

The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has said the value of its ongoing and planned development projects across the North-East region has risen to about N1.5 trillion, as it expands investments in infrastructure, electric mobility and renewable energy across the region.

The managing director and chief executive officer of the commission, Mohammed Alkali, stated this on Monday in Abuja at the opening of the NEDC 2026 ISO Executive Management Retreat.

Alkali said the commission currently had about N800 billion worth of ongoing physical projects, including roads, bridges and other infrastructure across the six states of the North-East.

He said the project portfolio was expected to rise to approximately N1.5 trillion as additional projects were incorporated in the coming days.

According to him, N400 billion of the projected investment would go into two major energy and transportation initiatives, comprising an electric vehicle project estimated at N200 billion and another N200 billion for the deployment of mini-grids across the region.

He said the mini-grid projects would have a combined capacity of 50 megawatts, while the electric vehicle project was expected to be commissioned in Maiduguri in the coming weeks.

Alkali urged senior management staff attending the three-day retreat to subject the commission’s major projects to critical scrutiny and make recommendations that could improve their implementation.

He specifically identified the electric vehicle and mini-grid projects for detailed examination during the group discussions.

“Let the e-vehicle be number one, discuss it, tear it and come up with what needs to be done. Really, we’ll look at it. Second, the mini-grid is another project,” he said.

The NEDC boss also disclosed that the Commission had installed about 70,000 solar-powered street lights between 2024 and 2025 across the North-East.

He said an additional 60,000 solar street lights were planned for installation in 2026, which would bring the projected total to more than 130,000 installations across the region.

Alkali, however, cautioned that the Commission’s growing profile and recognition placed greater responsibility on its management and staff to sustain its achievements.

He said the Commission’s acquisition of five ISO certifications was only the beginning, stressing that maintaining and sustaining the standards would be more important in the long term.

The NEDC boss urged staff to protect the value created by the certifications and other institutional reforms, stressing that the systems must continue to deliver value to the Commission and the people of the North-East.

Earlier, the acting head of the Governance and Compliance Service Reforms Unit, Fatima Dalhatu, said the purpose of the three-day retreat was to move the Commission beyond merely understanding ISO standards to taking ownership of the systems.

Dalhatu said the Integrated Management System should not be regarded as something separate from the Commission’s normal operations, but as a framework for improving the way it delivers its mandate.

She said the Commission’s master plan provided its strategic direction, while the Integrated Management System provided the discipline required to deliver on that direction.

According to her, although the Governance, Compliance and Service Reform Unit coordinates the systems, senior management must take ownership of and implement them to prevent a situation where the Commission ends up with “certificates on the wall” without corresponding institutional impact.

She said the ultimate objective was to make quality, accountability, integrity, safety and sustainability part of the Commission’s organisational culture.

Dalhatu added that the success of the retreat would be measured by whether participants returned to their respective responsibilities with a clear understanding that the ISO system belonged to the entire Commission and not only the Governance, Compliance and Service Reform Unit.