Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Niger Delta Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Trade, Mines and Agriculture (NDCCITMA) has identified governments of the nine Niger Delta states, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), others as critical development partners in efforts to build a sustainable regional investment ecosystem.
The Chairman of the Chamber, Idaere Gogo Ogan, stated this at the weekend in Port Harcourt during a pre-summit briefing ahead of the Niger Delta Economic and Investment Summit scheduled to hold from today in the Rivers State capital.
The summit, with the theme, “Driving Investment, Innovation and Industrial Growth in the Niger Delta,” is being positioned as a private-sector-led platform to attract investments, facilitate transactions and unlock the region’s economic potential.
Ogan said the objective was to bring together the nine Niger Delta states, the federal government, NDDC, organised private sector, domestic and international investors, development finance institutions, multilateral organisations, financial institutions, project developers and other strategic partners.
He said the ultimate goal was to move the region away from its predominantly resource-dependent economy towards a diversified, productive, industrialised and globally competitive regional economy.
According to him, the challenges confronting the Niger Delta were, to a large extent, self-inflicted and could not be resolved overnight without stronger collaboration between governments and the private sector.
“Several things have been happening across the Niger Delta, but this summit will begin to address them, starting with government and the private sector working together to create policies that will address the challenges,” he said.