The Managing Director, North East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Alkali has said that a Stabilization and Development Master Plan (NESDMP) is to be set out for execution.
According to him, the Commission is charged with the responsibility to recover, stabilize and develop the insurgency affected Northeast States.
Represented by NEDC’s Executive Director, Mohammed Jawa Gashua, disclosed that the Master Plan is based on the needs assessment of Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Taraba, Gombe and Yobe states.
“This master plan will contain programmes and schemes that promote and facilitate the physical and socio-economic development of northeast region,” he said.
He added that the plan will include various estimates of the time and costs of implementing the 10-year plans of programmes and schemes.
“We consider producing a credible and comprehensive roadmap for recovery and sustainable socio-economic development of the region,” he said.
Continuing; “The Commission conducted baseline surveys and held consultations with grassroots stakeholders, organised private sector (OPS), National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), CSOs and the representatives of the six State Governments in September, 2021.
He said that similar engagements were held with development partners and federal legislators from the six member states of the commission.
He added that Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the federal government and security agencies were engaged in the baseline surveys to produce the master plan.
He noted that the engagement of diverse stakeholders, was to harness their individual and collective inputs that aligned with inclusiveness and bottom-up policy of the commission.
According to him, the engagements of the Stakeholders will finalize the draft master plan that could be presented for validation.
He said that during the technical session, the master plan discussions should focus on schemes of programmes and projects to be implemented in the plan.
“The execution of the Master Plan was to alleviate poverty with job creation among the unemployed youths,” he said.
He said that the 10-year master plan will be adaptable to open windows for more funding.
Strategies, according to him, are to be adapted to ensure a purposeful collaboration and coordination with effective integration among the commission, state government and other partners.
While producing the Master Plan, he said: “We plead with the Stakeholders to complete their questionnaires during registration and return them at the end of this meeting,” noting that this was a fruitful deliberations through their active participation.”
