Mohammed Shosanya

The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, says it will regularise its budget cycle to align with the national budget, as it inaugurates 18-member 2025 Budget Committee to prepare its budget proposals.

Addressing members of the committee during the inauguration ceremony at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, the NDDC Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, said that the committee would ensure that before the end of the 2024 budget cycle, the Commission would have secured approval for the 2025 budget.

He stated: “As we are about implementing the 2024 budget, we must begin preparation for the 2025 budget by holding consultations with our stakeholders. Last year we hosted a two-day 2024 Budget of Reconstruction Conference in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

“The committee will ensure that the budget will reflect the needs of the people. To achieve this, we must have a stakeholders’ conference to get their buy-in. We are not doing it for ourselves, but for the collective benefit of stakeholders of the Niger Delta region.

Ogbuku said that the NDDC budget would focus on funding achievable projects, stating: “We cannot develop the region in one year. So, we will endeavour to have a smart budget that will focus on projects that we can finish, especially ongoing projects. The committee will study the old projects and determine those ones that can be completed within a short time.”

The NDDC boss said that as soon as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signs the 2024 budget passed by the National Assembly, the Commission would raise a trillion naira to fund some legacy projects initiated by previous administrations. One of such projects included the Okrika-Borokiri link Road in Rivers State.

Ogbuku observed that the NDDC directors in the nine mandate states of the Commission, as well as a representative of the Oil Producers Trade Section, OPTS, would be incorporated into the Budget Committee.

He stressed: “Let us be seen as an NDDC that is working and not the one that is just awarding contracts without seeing to their completion.”

The Coordinator of the Budget Committee and the NDDC Director Planning, Research and Statistics, Mr. Davies Okarevu, explained that the state offices of the Commission would be fully involved in the budget process, noting that efforts would be made to ensure that the Commission produced an all-inclusive budget. “The committee will develop a budget guideline for the committee to consider and approve,” he said.

The Budget Committee is led by the NDDC Managing Director as its Chairman with the Commission’s Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Alabo Boma Iyaye as the Committee’s alternate Chairman.