The Niger Delta Development Commission is seeking partnerships to finance power and road projects worth about $27.3bn in the oil-rich region of Nigeria.
It disclosed this in a July 2023 document titled, “A Sea of Opportunities in the Niger Delta Region,” obtained in Abuja, where it outlined the benefits that would be derived from the projects.
It said the Niger Delta Regional Power Pool project would require about $13bn, while the East-West Coastal Road project would gulp $24.3bn.
The NDDC named the states in the NDR to include Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Delta, Abia, Imo and Ondo.
Providing details about the Niger Delta Regional Power Pool project, the NDDC said, “The transmission network of 19 gas powered generation will link the nine BRACED commission states and supply power to the load centres to guarantee cheap, reliable, and sustainable power in the region at the cost of $13bn.
“This will entail a 330kV transmission network (the Niger Delta Regional Power Pool) that links the nine NDR states and supplies 7GW of subsidised power to the load centres (27 dynamic industrial parks), one per senatorial district.
“Installation of power generation assets in each IP (industrial park). Construction of a regional transmission network to tie the PGA’s (power generation assets) together and engender interstate power trading.”
The document, which provided in-depth details about the power project, also stated that the East-West Coastal Road project would open up the Nigerian coastal corridor.
It said the road project would start from the Odukpani Junction in Cross River State and would connect several communities, stretching 704km long, with 106km spurs and 180 bridges.
The NDDC said the road would terminate at the Ibeju, Lekki-Epe Expressway in Lagos State.
It said, “The proposed East-West Coastal Highway commences from Odukpani Junction in Cross River and terminates at Ibeju on the Lekki-Epe Expressway, connecting 1,000 communities.
“The proposed highway travels 704km on the main alignment and about 106km of spurs straddling over barriers, island, forests, fresh swamps, mangrove swamps and waterways.
“The alignment passes through nine states: Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos.”
According to the commission, the spurs are provided to connect the East-West Coastal Highway to centres of economic activities in the northern and central regions of the country.
“It is to also create access to the coastline for maritime industries, tourism and recreational activities,” it added.
For the cost of the project, it stated that the road would gulp $24.3bn.
The NDDC claimed that based on the plan, a management committee on public private partnership, called the Public Private Partnership Committee was constituted by the managing director of the commission in January this year.
In June, the Managing Director, NDDC, Samuel Ogbuku, said the aim of a recent dialogue organised by the commission was to get the collaboration of stakeholders and development partners in promoting greater synergy for enhanced result in the oil-rich region.
He explained that the NDDC policy dialogue was part of a deliberate effort by the commission to deepen relationships with development partners and the private sector to close gaps in sustainable development in the region.
“This is through the coordination of development interventions for improved effectiveness and impact,” Ogbuku noted.
Also, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Shuaib Belgore, had stated that the dialogue was one of many strategies designed by the ministry and the NDDC to “fast-track the development of the Niger Delta region through extra-budgetary provisions aimed at meeting socio-economic needs in the region”.
He added, “I also believe that this platform would present stakeholders a window of opportunity to collectively review our past development efforts in the region, with a view to charting a new robust roadmap premised on probity and corporate governance structure.”
