The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has attributed the delay in completing projects to belated budget submission, delayed approvals and other challenges and vowed to address the issues in time for the 2024 budget.
At a two-day workshop tagged: “Partnership for Sustainable Development (PSD) Forum, NDDC 2024 Budget of Reconstruction Conference”, which opened yesterday at the Ibom Icon Hotel and Golf Resort, Uyo the Akwa Ibom State capital, stakeholders harped on restructuring the budget process to catch – up with the new budget year 2024.
The commission’s managing director and chief executive officer (CEO), Dr Samuel Ogbuku, promised a new era of transparency in the budgeting process through a holistic articulation of issues with the involvement of key stakeholders including governors of the nine Niger Delta states, international oil companies (IOCs), the traditional rulers and civil society organizations (CSOs).
He said the new ‘Budget of Reconstruction’ beginning from 2024, hopes to address cases of abandoned projects and other infrastructural deficits impinging negatively on the accelerated growth plans of the region.
The agency under his watch, he said, had been meeting with the governors, the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG), the IOCs, and other stakeholders with a view to ascertaining areas of collaboration and other intervention measures to tackle development challenges in the region.
According to him, abandoned road and bridge projects in Rivers State, the Escravos road project in Delta State and other abandoned projects in the region, have already been earmarked for completion, and tasked stakeholders to be in the vanguard of the evolution of the new interventionist agency.
The executive director (ED) in charge of Finance and Administration, Major Gen. Charles Airhiavbere (rtd), said the NDDC is determined to do what is right in order to return the commission to its original mandate, assuring that the restructuring of the entire budget processes would avoid duplication of functions and other impediments that combined to stall effective implementation of the vision and mission of the agency in the region.
“The NDDC budget for 2024 will be transparent and participatory,” he stressed, adding that the new regime of proper re – engineering of funds to be allocated to the agency would ensure efficiency and effective execution of the NDDC’s legacy projects in the region.
However, the permanent secretary, Ministry of Niger Delta Development, Dr Shuaib Belgore, who was represented by the director, Planning, Research and Statistics, Mr Alfred Abah, commended the new Board for the ongoing reforms, and blamed the slow development process of the region on “belated budget submission leading to delayed approvals.’’
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