The North-East Development Commission (NEDC) has reviewed its operations since its establishment six years ago, saying that its intervention programmes and projects have addressed the core causes of insecurity in the region.
Although the recent resurgence of terror activities is threatening the successes so far achieved by the NEDC and Borno State government in resettling the over a milion Internally Displaced Persons ( IDPs ) to their ancestral homes, the NEDC said, it has considerably laid the foundation for the secure, peaceful and prosperous resettlement of the hundreds of returnee communities.
The Commission participated in a 3-day retreat on institutional coordination for development, which brought together the leadership of the five Regional Development Commissions in Lagos.
The retreat, which ended, Monday, May 5, was organised by the Federal Ministry of Regional Development.
“With the NEDC, hundreds of communities destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgency have been successfully reconstructed or rehabilitated, including roads, bridges, markets, and houses,” the Commission’s Managing Director/CEO, Mohammed Goni Alkali, reported, adding, “We have also reintegrated over a million of displaced persons with their communities.”
To facilitate the successful reintegration of displaced communities, Alkali said, “the Commission has been able to construct thousands of housing estates for Internally Displaced Persons.”
The MD said: “We have addressed most of the core causes of the insecurity in the North-East region by completing a broad range of projects, including roads, bridges, houses, schools, hospitals, markets, Skills Acquisition Centres for the teeming youths, as well as many agricultural and youth empowerment programmes.”
The retreat, attended by the Minister of Regional Development, Engr Abubakar Momo, and the Minister of State for Regional Development, Uba’ Maigari Ahmadu, was meant to be an agenda-setting occasion where the Federal Ministry of Regional Development outlined its goals and mandate as well as a framework of operation for proper coordination and harmonization of programmes and activities.
The NEDC team was led by the chairman, Maj-Gen Paul Tarfa (rtd), the managing director/CEO, Mohammed Goni Alkali, as well as other management staff of the commission.
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