NDDC US Firm To Connect All Niger Delta States By Rail
The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States Consulate and a United States-based firm, Atlanta Global Resources Inc., AGRI, to build a railway network that will connect the nine states of the Niger Delta region.
According to a press release on Tuesday, 25th April 2023 signed by the NDDC Director of Corporate Affairs, Ibitoye Abosede, Ph.D, said that the ceremony, which was a part of the one-day Public Private Partnerships Summit organized by the Commission in Lagos on Tuesday, will provide locomotives, construct railway lines and operate same in the oil producing states of Rivers, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Imo and Abia.
The MOU was signed by the managing director/CEO of the NDDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, on behalf of the Commission, Mr. Chamberlain Eke, on behalf of the United States Consulate, and Mr. Tony Akpele, on behalf of AGRI.
Work on the preliminary stages of the project, perhaps the biggest in the history of the Commission, is expected to start immediately.
L-R: The NDDC Executive Director Projects, Mr. Charles Ogunmola; Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Obong Umana Okon Umana; the NDDC Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku and a representative of the United States Consulate, Mr. Chamberlain Eke; NDDC Director Legal, Dr Stephen Ighoumuaye, during the signing of MOU at the PPP, summit at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos.
Speaking at the summit, Dr. Ogbuku disclosed that the NDDC was determined to renavigate the process of its intervention in the Niger Delta so that it can achieve its mandate “of facilitating the rapid, even and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful.”
He stated that the MOU represented a big harvest for the NDDC from the PPP Summit.
In his goodwill message at the summit, former NDDC Managing Director, Chief Timi Alaibe, expressed delight at the PPP initiative taken by the new leadership of the Commission.
He said: “This is the first time in 15 years that I am attending an NDDC function. This is because the new board is charting a new course that is impressive.”