FG to Convene Niger Delta Housing Summit

Abuja — The Federal Government in conjunction with the Foundation for Development and Environment Initiatives, a private sector group with expertise in housing and urban development issues, is planning to hold an international summit aimed at helping to speed-up development of housing infrastructure in the Niger Delta region.

The conference which is being organised in collaboration with the Office of the Economic Adviser to the President, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Federal Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban Deve-lopment under the theme, 'Housing and Sustainable Development in the Niger Delta' is targeting at identifying the environmental issues and the housing problems facing the people of Niger Delta as well as proffering workable solutions to address them.

Against the background of the worrisome state of affairs in the oil-rich region, where infrastructure and living conditions of the people has reached its lowest ebb, the summit seeks to bring together experts from different parts of the world to share experience on the most effective ways of providing housing and other social amenities to the inhabitants.

The overall goal of the summit is to generate pro-poor and evidence-based positions that would influence government decision on housing and environmental challenges issues in the Niger Delta and eventually translate into mainstreaming these issues in national development plan.

It is also expected to draw global attention to the challenges of environment, housing and urban development facing the people inhabiting the oil-rich region.

Among the topical issues billed for discussion at the summit are how to effectively address the lingering environmental problems affecting economic survival of the people, mechanism for delivering mass housing schemes to provide adequate shelter to cushion the negative effects of oil exploration activities in the region.

The Executive Director of FDI, Prof. Michael Filani who spoke to newsmen on the planned conference to held in Abuja from October 16 to 18 , said experts across the world are being invited to brainstorm and to critically analyze policy issues and options to be considered for effective environmental management in the Niger Delta.

Speaking on the decision to focus the direction of the conference on the development issues in the Niger Delta, Filani said the effort to address the crisis in the oil-producing region has occupied the front-burner of national priorities in recent times mainly because of the need to restore peace and tranquillity and to ensure that the country's economic interest is not jeopardized.

"That is the region that produces the major source of our foreign exchange earner, that is the region that has militancy and that is the place that has the possibility of generating more and more problems if the problem is not dealt with", he said.

He said federal government is pursuing as its major policy thrust efforts aimed at addressing the development question in the region is a sustainable manner, adding that the summit will try to create enabling environment for the implementation of policy decisions in the area of actualizing mass housing delivery for the people.

"When we talk about sustainability, we are looking at strategies that would take into considerations of generations yet un-born so that development must be tailored in such a manner as to meet not only the present demands but future needs of the people", he said.

According to him, the outcome of the confab would form a ready data bank for speedy implementation of development projects in the crisis-turn region.

"Precisely what the organisers expects from the summit is a comprehensive assessment of the housing and infrastructure needs of the people of Niger Delta region", he said.

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