The North-East Development Commission (NEDC), on Wednesday, said it had developed a new model North-East Stabilisation and Development Master Plan (NESDMP), to improve the region’s infrastructure and people.
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The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NEDC, Mohammad Alkali, disclosed this in a statement at the end of a Humanitarian, Development, and Peace building (HDP) stakeholder engagement forum, in Abuja.
Alkali described the NESDMP as an all-inclusive roadmap for peace, reconciliation, rehabilitation, reactivation, replacement, reconstruction, and resettlement.
“The plan also encompasses regeneration, redevelopment, and sustainable growth of the North-East region.
“This will focus on both alleviating poverty and promoting prosperity, using transformative projects and programmes.
“The Act establishing the NEDC provides for having a master plan for humanitarian development and peace building. The NESDMP is a comprehensive plan that will cover all human endeavours, as it affects the North-East,’’ he said.
Alkali added that the NEDC Act clearly outlined the process in two-parts: a baseline study establishing the extent of damage and needs assessment and the Masterplan, which produces schemes and programmes with costs and timelines.
He said that the commission’s plan would help erase some duplications of activities in the North-East, since state governments might have their own master plans, but at the end of the day, the NEDC would streamline them into one.
Already, the commission has engaged a consultant working on the project and ensuring that all strategies were harmonised, Alkali said.
The lead consultant on the NESDMP, Dr Kassim Gidado, said that the 2030 plan aimed to achieve a thriving and peaceful region.
“This will be levelled-up with productivity economic shifts for enhanced outputs, inclusive growth, and self-sufficiency.
“The strategic team includes collective peace and hope, equitable levelled up, reshaped economic reality and institutionalised change,” Gidado said.
The Head, Humanitarian team, Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) UK, Alexandra Maclean, said that the UK Government was pleased to assist the NEDC through the ENSURE Trust Fund.
Maclean said the continuing crisis in North-East Nigeria remained a significant priority for the UK and that after over 12 years of conflict, the value of the NESDMP could not be overemphasised.
Also, the Chairman of the masterplan committee, Prof. Bobboi Umaru, said the plan covered up to 11 sectors, cutting across humanitarian, recovery, peacebuilding, and sustainable development, thereby making it very holistic and comprehensive.
“We cannot wait until ‘total’ peace is achieved. Each area will be addressed by the plan, looking at the prevailing situation. That means you have to do a risk analysis on where to cite projects”, Umaru added
