The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), have been charged by Stakeholders to entrench collaboration and partnership in the development of the Niger Delta Region by holding quarterly Partners for Sustainable Development (PSD) forum for the various stages of its budgeting.
The statement was contained in a communique issued at the end of a two-day PSD forum, 2024 Budget of Reconstruction Conference held at Ibom Icon Hotel, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The importance of the PSD forum was also stressed at the stakeholders meeting, noting the forum is aimed at eliminating duplications and institutional suspicions in the development process, reducing the incidence of working at cross purpose, as well as reducing wastage of scarce resources allocated for regional development initiatives by stakeholders.
The need for NDDC to focus on projects that will benefit the people of the region was also stressed by the stakeholders, as it was stated in the communique which reads in part, “The Commission should strike a balance between meeting the political demands and serving the people of the region by executing people-centric projects.”
The communique expressed, “The NDDC should operate a lean budget that will allow and enable her to commence and complete projects within a certain and realistic budget cycle.”
The communique further noted, “For the 2025 budget, less of new projects should be captured in order to ensure the quick completion of all ongoing projects under the 2024 budget “.
Also contained in the communique is that the budget of the commission should have spread to cover the several ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta Region.
The Executive Management of the commission was commended by the stakeholders Commended for resuscitating the PSD Forum, which was last held in 2016, the stakeholders went further to advise the commission to maintain a timeline for the payment of contractors.
