The North East Development Commission, (NEDC), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, with China-based Mutual Commitment Group, (MCG), for the ongoing Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement of millions of Internally Displaced Persons, and other victims of Boko Haram.
This was disclosed in Maiduguri during an interview with the NEDC Board Chairman, Major General Paul Tarfa (rtd), after a closed-door meeting between the newly reconstituted board of Commission and the management team of MCG, led by its Managing Director, Long Liu, in the Borno State capital.
Tarfa said the MOU became imperative, to scale-up the people-oriented interventions, being executed by the commission, within the six states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi, and Taraba.
According to the NEDC Chairman, after more than one decade of atrocities, perpetrated by the insurgents in the region, it is time to adopt a holistic approach in finding lasting solutions to the problem.
The NEDC Chairman said “areas of collaboration include renewable energy and power generation, health care, education, agriculture, road construction, a favourable climate for job creation, poverty reduction, rehabilitation and resettlement.”
MCG Managing Director, Long Liu, explained his group’s mission to journalists.
“We are at the NEDC office together with my entourage as development partners to sign an MOU on infrastructure, industry, and regional development projects in the North East sub-region. The MOU is aimed at resolving the immediate challenges and devastations that were carried out by insurgents and the attendant economic meltdown.”
He said MCG will start by prioritising the key areas, such as reconstruction, ecological and climate change, power, transportation, resettlement and education.
Editor: Oloyede Oworu