No more white elephant projects, waste of public funds — Tinubu

ABUJA — President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday warned that the era of white-elephant projects and waste of public funds must end, threatening sanctions against officials found culpable of corruption in the management of the newly established Regional Development Commissions.

Tinubu, represented by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume, at the first North Central Stakeholders Development Summit in Abuja, also directed the SGF’s office to ensure timely release of funds accruable to the commissions, while urging them to mobilise private capital rather than depend solely on government funding.

The warning came as the North Central Development Commission, NCDC, unveiled an ambitious 20-year development plan aimed at transforming the region’s agricultural, mineral, infrastructural and human-capital potential into productive assets, investment, jobs and shared prosperity.

Delivering the President’s remarks, Akume said the Regional Development Commissions were established under the Renewed Hope Agenda to close longstanding development gaps across the country, not to replace, duplicate or usurp the functions of existing tiers of government.

“The era of white elephant projects is over and there is no excuse for the Commissions to become another conduit pipe for wasting public funds,” Tinubu said.

He said the commissions must focus on projects capable of unlocking the potential of their regions while strengthening interconnectivity across the country, identifying roads, rail, air transportation, industrialisation, security, investment, education, health and human-capital development as key areas.

Tinubu charged the commissions to work with clear, concise, attainable and properly funded programmes, stressing that development must ultimately be about the people and not simply about producing documents.

Sanctions await corrupt officials

The President warned the boards and managements of the commissions against corruption, marginalisation, politicisation and ethnicisation of government operations.

“Such actions will not be tolerated and government will not hesitate to sanction anyone found culpable,” he said.

Tinubu said the North Central had enormous potential in agriculture, food production and agro-processing, solid minerals, industrial development, peace and security, but had for too long operated below its endowments.

He urged stakeholders to scrutinise the 20-year development plan and ensure that it reflected the aspirations of the people and aligned with the Renewed Hope Agenda.

“This Summit should not end up as one of those platforms where ideas are ventilated and reports generated only to be left dusting in the shelves. The NCDC should show a better example by following through to implementation,” he said.

Beyond government funding, Tinubu urged the commissions to explore Public-Private Partnerships, donor funding and development financing, in line with their establishment Acts and extant government guidelines.

He also directed the SGF to ensure that all funds accruable to the Regional Development Commissions were released as and when due.

The President said the establishment of Development Commissions across the regions was intended to accelerate national development and ensure that no region was left behind.

While declaring the summit open, Tinubu urged stakeholders to ensure that the deliberations produced practical outcomes capable of laying a strong foundation for the North Central region over the next two decades.

Investors see markets, not state boundaries — NCDC

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the NCDC, Dr Cyril Yiltsen Tsenyil, said the North Central must stop thinking primarily in terms of individual state projects and begin operating as an integrated regional economy.

“Investors do not see the boundary between Benue and Nasarawa, or between Kogi and Niger, the way governments do. They see markets, supply chains, corridors, resources and labour pools,” Tsenyil said.

He said the region’s agriculture should feed processing industries, its minerals should become industrial inputs, while roads, railways, waterways and dry ports should function as interconnected economic corridors rather than isolated projects.

Under the draft 20-year plan, the NCDC said it wanted the North Central to become one of Africa’s most competitive agro-industrial regions, with agriculture moving beyond primary production into storage, processing, logistics, finance, commodity markets and export-oriented value chains.

It also said the region’s mineral wealth should generate greater value through responsible mining, formalisation of artisanal operators and local processing, noting that discussions had begun with the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, including on a Special Purpose Vehicle for the sector.

According to Tsenyil, infrastructure development would be organised around regional economic corridors.

He disclosed discussions with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission on a regional railway network, revival of Ajaokuta Steel, dredging of the Rivers Benue and Niger, Baro Port and the Jos Dry Inland Port.

The commission said development would also be judged by its impact on people, particularly young people and communities around major economic corridors, insisting that social inclusion was essential to sustainable development.

The NCDC also said investment-ready opportunities from the states of the region and the FCT would be taken into structured “Deal Rooms” and classified according to their readiness, from projects ready for investment to those requiring structuring and those still at the conceptual stage.

The commission said investors would require credible data, feasibility studies, land information, revenue models and clear risk allocation, as well as confidence that projects would survive changes in administration.

It identified federal and state resources, development finance, commercial capital, domestic and foreign private investment, PPPs, concessions, grants and blended financing as potential sources of funding.

“Our philosophy is that every naira of public money should be deployed to unlock a far larger pool of private capital,” Tsenyil said, explaining the rationale behind the commission’s Board-approved Investment Company.

The commission invited investors to bring capital, technology, management expertise and markets to the region, while urging state governments and the FCT to present projects backed by land, data, approvals, sponsors and political commitment.

It said the ultimate measure of success would not be the number of meetings held or memoranda signed, but jobs created, private capital mobilised, strategic infrastructure delivered and the value added to agricultural and mineral production.

The NCDC further explained that its broader ambition was to move the region from potential to productivity, raw materials to value addition, isolated projects to regional corridors, ideas to bankable projects and government spending to investment mobilisation.

Tsenyil pledged to coordinate, facilitate, partner, mobilise, monitor and remain accountable as implementation of the long-term development agenda progresses.

20-year plan must outlive administrations — Minister

Also speaking, Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh, said the 20-year plan offered the North Central an opportunity to establish a common development vision capable of surviving changes in government.

Momoh linked the regional plan to the proposed National Regional Development Policy, NRDP, 2026–2030, being advanced by his ministry, saying the policy would provide the broader framework for coordinating regional development.

He said the North Central plan should not become a mere catalogue of projects but a transformation framework capable of guiding public investment, private capital and development partnerships over the long term.

The minister identified integrated regional planning, comparative advantage, infrastructure connectivity, social inclusion, human-capital development, peace and security, and institutional coordination as key principles for the plan.

He said the region must increasingly be planned as an interconnected economic space, with infrastructure linked to agricultural value chains, industrial clusters, markets and economic corridors.

Momoh said the region’s youthful population also required skills for the economy of the future, including agriculture and agro-processing, technology, renewable energy, manufacturing, mining services, construction, logistics and the digital economy.

“Human capital development must therefore be treated not merely as social expenditure, but as economic infrastructure,” he said.

On security, the minister said sustainable development could not be achieved without peace, noting that communal conflicts, displacement and insecurity had affected agriculture, investment, education and livelihoods in parts of the region.

He said development itself could become an instrument of peace by creating jobs, economic opportunities and tangible benefits for communities.

Momoh said the 20-year plan must contain measurable milestones for five, 10, 15 and 20 years, with progress judged by development outcomes rather than the amount of money spent or number of projects initiated.