NDCCITMA, NDDC Task Niger Deltans On Investing

The Niger Delta Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Trade, Mines and Agriculture (NDCCITMA) and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has called on the people of 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 brains collectively and individually in order to achieve the needed results.

“We must have to use our brain. If we use our brain collectively and individually, results will come.

“The Niger Delta does not begin from insignificance. It begins from 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: 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 derivation, intervention, grievance, militancy, amnesty, ecology 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 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 with the business roundtable, leaders of the region were creating a platform where practical ideas can 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 industrialization, infrastructure development, maritime opportunities within the Blue Economy, environmental restoration, and human capital development.

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