North-East Commission to deepen collaboration, improve service delivery

Group photograph of the participants at the 2026 Excellent Forum. Credit. NEDC.

Staff of the North-East Development Commission have converged on Maiduguri, Borno State, to strengthen collaboration and improve processes that support the delivery of its core mandate to the people of the region.

The meeting, which started in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Monday, September 14, was organised as a strategic summit themed “The 2026 Excellence Forum.” It brought together staff of the commission from across the six states of the region, including Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba.

The Managing Director of the NEDC, Mohammed Goni, in a statement on Tuesday, said the summit would examine how the principles of quality, accountability, integrity and improved service delivery could be better reflected in the day-to-day work of its staff.

Goni noted that the organisation’s standards would ultimately be determined by how they improved the commission’s work and its service to the people of the North-East.

“For us, excellence must ultimately be measured by the quality of development we deliver to the people of the Northeast,” he maintained.

Goni said despite the commission’s international certifications highlighting its standards, the real work was to ensure that those standards were reflected in the commission’s work and service delivery.

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“This emphasis on moving from standards to practice is at the heart of the 2026 Excellence Forum. Rather than focusing only on presentations, participants will work through practical exercises, simulations and real workplace situations aimed at improving collaboration, problem-solving and service delivery,” he said.

“The Forum follows the NEDC’s certification to five International Organisation for Standardisation management system standards covering Quality Management, Environmental Management, Occupational Health and Safety, Anti-Bribery Management, and Sustainable Development in Communities. For the Commission, the focus is now on what comes after certification,” he added.

The MD further noted that the Commission recognised that delivering roads, schools, healthcare facilities, water, livelihoods and other interventions across the North-East depended on the strength of the institution behind those interventions.

“Building capable people, improving internal systems and strengthening accountability are therefore an important part of the NEDC’s wider development mandate,” he emphasised.

Goni noted that through the Excellence Forum, the commission sought to ensure that the standards it had adopted were not simply requirements for certification but became part of how its people worked and how the institution delivered.

“Ultimately, the aim is simple: a stronger NEDC that delivers better outcomes for the people of the North-East,” he said.