FG pushes unified master plans for regional development

The Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh while delivering this goodwill message at the event... Photo Credit: Adebayo Folorunsho-Francis

The Federal Government has urged the various regional development commissions to emulate the Niger Delta Development Commission in producing master plans to be harmonised into a regional development compass.

The Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh, gave the charge during the NDDC 2026 Partners for Sustainable Development Conference with the theme: ‘Synergy for Transformation: Managing Regional Development, Local Governance and Sustainable Partnership in the Niger Delta’ held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Wednesday.

Momoh said each development commission was expected to derive its master plan and operational agenda from it, in line with the mandate of the Ministry of Regional Development.

He said the Federal Government was working to harmonise regional development initiatives across Nigeria through a new policy framework to promote coordinated and inclusive growth nationwide.

Momoh stated, “A common view of priorities supported by reliable data and linked to the National Regional Development Master Plan will enable us to identify gaps, sequence interventions, and avoid concentrating several projects in one location while other units elsewhere remain unattended.

“I also want to use this opportunity to make some clarifications. All development commissions in Nigeria may have as their priority to establish a master plan that will act like a compass with which they begin to execute projects they want to.

“For the NDDC, when I came on board, we had a very complex master plan. I think I came on board to a master plan developed by the NDDC and done by the ministry, for which directions were given by the President for the harmonisation of the two documents.

“I guess it is in the process of harmonising these documents that some of these guidelines were taken down to make it good and being made.

“It is expected that once a master plan is completed and approved by the board, it will receive the backing of the Federal Executive Council. Not necessarily a law, again, to put it in the budget.

“So I think for all the development commissions, you have to take a cue from what is already being done by NDDC so that once you complete your master plan, it must pass through the ministry for approval.”

He said the Regional Development Policy Direction requires projects to be prioritised on the basis of strategic impact and aligned with the Renewal Hope agenda of the administration.

“We must therefore develop remarkable projects and create well-structured opportunities for the private sector and international development partners to invest in infrastructure, agriculture and agro-processing, renewable energy, digital services, transport, tourism, manufacturing, and the rural economy,” the minister added.

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He lauded the NDDC board and management for convening the partnership and sustainable development conference, describing it as timely and necessary.

He also noted that no single institution could manage the Niger Delta region’s complex challenges alone.

Momoh urged stakeholders to use the conference to interrogate practices, challenge what was not working, and forge stronger bonds of collaboration.

Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, stressed the need for the governors of the nine oil-producing states to partner with NDDC for sustainable development in the region.

Uzodinma, who was represented by his deputy, Mrs Chinyere Ekomaru, said the Imo State Government would continue to support President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to bring hope to the people of the state and the Niger Delta region.

Managing Director of the NDDC, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, stressed the importance of engaging stakeholders to develop strategies for economic growth and development in the Niger Delta region.

Ogbuku said stakeholder engagement was one of the cardinal points of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration.

He declared: “The importance of stakeholders’ engagement is to ensure that projects and activities of the government are well understood by the people to create room for synergy.”

The NDDC MD declared that the 1.2-kilometre Kaa-Ataba Bridge linking the Khana Local Government Area to the Andoni Local Government Area of Rivers State will be named after President Tinubu.

The chairman of the NDDC governing board, Mr Chiedu Ebie, said the commission adopted a new Standard Operating Procedure and the Governance Advisory Policies, as approved by the commission’s board.

Ebie stated that the SOP and Governance Advisory Policies “shall constitute the commission’s rule book and strictly guide all processes and operations within the commission.”

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission, Asuquo Ekpenyong, said the committee would continue to strengthen oversight to ensure transparency, efficiency, and timely delivery of projects across the Niger Delta region.