Underdevelopment and infrastructural deficit have been identified as a common factor among states in the Niger Delta region.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, stated this while inaugurating an Aquaculture Training Centre built by NDDC at Elugwu Umuntu Olokoro, Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State.
He also noted that the region is bedeviled with myriad of ecological problems including flooding and erosion.
The NDDC boss, however, said that the Commission was established to tackle “the and various other challenges” of the region, restated the preparedness of the commission under his watch to live up to its responsibilities.
He explained that when he came on board, he adopted a policy of scaling down on new projects until all projects earlier initiated by the commission were completed.
According to him, it is illogical to embark on new projects when old ones were abandoned, adding that the era of abandoned projects by NDDC has come to an end.
Dr Ogbuku described the Aquaculture Training Centre as a signature project of NDDC which will add value to the lives of the people.
He further said that investments in agriculture remained one of the sustainable means of youth employment and job creation.
The NDDC boss promised to expand the facilities at the centre and to ensure they were put into proper use, adding that the trainees at the centre would be monitored to ensure they were able to stand on their own after acquiring skills at the centre.
In his address, the Abia State Representative in the NDDC Board, Chief Dimgba Eruba, the Centre was envisioned to be a skill acquisition hub and an economic catalyst that would empower a good number of the teeming population of youths on how to breed, raise and harvest fish, ” and make profit from the enterprise”.
He decried the activities of vandals which affected the timely competition of the project, and urged the host community to help in safeguarding facilities at the centre.
Eruba recalled that “at various times the activities of hoodlums who ingloriously vandalized valuable fittings including an electricity generating set in this center, threatened the successful completion and commissioning of this project”.
He, however, said thatin spite of “the aforementioned setbacks, with sheer determination to overcome the twin evil of poverty and unemployment that confront us in Abia state, we carried on with the necessary works and to the glory of God, we are able to actualize the project.”
In a remark, the Consultant, Dr Moses Oluigbo, identified the production of fries/fingerlings to meet the growing demand for fish seed stocks by fish farmers in the Niger Delta region; creation of a hub for training of youths in the region in fish production technology; generation of employment and wealth creation as some of the objectives of establishing the centre.
He appealed to NDDC to “facilitate and approve the regular posting of a good percentage of trainees” to the centre, arguing that “regular posting of trainees would enhance the operational activities of the centre”.
The project which was awarded in 2013 to the tune of N245 million consist of eight fish housing tanks (fish ponds), two hatcheries, two lecture blocks, a six-room staff quarters, a four-room office block, power generating set, eight units of street lights, water supply system, among others.
