The NDDC supports private sector involvement in business growth

The Managing Director/CEO of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, on Monday advocated for the involvement of the private sector in the growth of businesses in the Niger Delta region.

Dr Ogbuku stated this at the roundtable on Niger Delta Affairs organized by the Niger Delta Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Commerce, Mines and Agriculture in Port Harcourt.

He said the Niger Delta Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Commerce, Mines and Agriculture were established to help the commission from political pressure and help businesses in the region grow.

The NDDC boss advised the Chambers of Commerce to create an expert group of astute entrepreneurs to create synergy between the private sector and government for strategic implementation of the roundtable discussions.

“A government plays its role, but we don’t just look at the government. The private sector must step in because we are all interested. Let us all be patriotic towards this region,” Dr Ogbuku said.

In the keynote address, on the creation of a new development agenda for the Niger Delta region, former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Dr. Simbi Wabote, while calling for a regional master plan for regional development, stressed that politics has derailed the development of the region.

“A shift towards a new agenda recognizes the need for an organic anchoring in the strength of the region. The Niger Delta can move from self-sustaining development to sustainable development,” he said.

On her part, Cross River State Commissioner for Commerce, Dr. Abigail Duke Orok, called on the Niger Delta region to look beyond oil and focus on other sectors of the economy that God has endowed the region with.

Dr Orok called on the Niger Delta to develop and invest in other resources that abound in the region, such as real estate, agriculture and solid minerals to grow the region’s economy, adding that doing so would create employment opportunities for the teeming youths and the crime rate would equally be reduced.

He appealed to the NDDC and the Federal Government to pay attention, as a matter of urgent importance, to the deplorable condition of the Itu-Uyo road.