Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) says it has adopted the Chamber of Commerce template to drive economic development in the zone.
By Nathan Nwakamma
Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) says it has adopted the Chamber of Commerce template to drive economic development in the zone.
NDDC’s Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, said this at a sensitisation workshop on the Niger Delta Chambers Of Commerce, Industry, Trade, Mines and Agriculture (NDCCITMA), on Tuesday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa.
Ogbuku said that NDDC adopted the template, in line with its desire to proffer lasting solutions to the challenges plaguing businesses in the region, through provision of structured business financing to entrepreneurs.
Ogbuku urged business owners in Bayelsa to take advantage of the capacity development, financial facilities and other opportunities presented to them through NDCCITMA.
He said that NDCCITMA was established by NDDC across the nine states of the zone to drive entrepreneurship, while emphasising the board’s commitment to ensuring that development was brought to Niger Delta through genuine processes of economic empowerment.
According to him, the chamber will stand between NDDC and the regional business community to assist innovators, entrepreneurs and struggling businesses to advance their aspirations.
This, he said, would be done by providing modalities to help them through the stringent conditions of financial institutions.
Ogbuku, who spoke through Sen. Elder Dumaro, member representing Bayelsa on the governing board of NDDC, urged all contractors and intending contractors working with NDDC to register with the chambers as a prerequisite for doing business with the commission.
According to him, the activities of the chamber will equally enhance food security, manufacturing, skills development, blue economy and job creation for the youth.
NDDC’s Executive Director Project, Mr Victor Antai, noted that the commission had entered into strategic partnership with the chambers to bridge the business gap and revive nano and micro-level businesses that had almost become non-existent.
The executive director explained that members of NDCCITMA’s board of directors had been meticulously selected from across the nine states of the zone.
Antai called on startups and individuals with business ideas to take advantage of the opportunity to seek valuable business counsel from the chamber.
Earlier, the Chairman of NDCCITMA, Amb. Idaere Ogan, remarked that Niger Delta people had long desired a regional body to coordinate businesses in the area.
Ogan, represented by Dr Solomon Edebiri, commended the NDDC leadership for its foresight in promoting the Chamber of Commerce, noting that NDCCITMA would work as development partner with the commission.
He explained that the chamber would provide essential guidance to entrepreneurs and investors wanting to establish business in the Niger Delta zone.
Also speaking, President of Yenagoa Chamber of Commerce (YECCIMA), Chief James Neminebor, enjoined the chamber to collaborate with the state chambers of commerce and work with its already existing elaborate structure.
Some of the dignitaries present at the occasion included: local government chairmen from Bayelsa as well as the leadership of NDDC and NDCCITMA, amongst others. (NAN)
 says it has adopted the Chamber of Commerce template to drive economic development in the zone.){kind=link}