The World Health Organisation (WHO) has agreed to partner the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to implement a health insurance project as well as other health programmes that would benefit the people of the Niger Delta region.
This was affirmed by the NDDC Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, during an interview with newsmen at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt. He said the Commission recently held a meeting with WHO officials, where it made a presentation on a Health Insurance Project for the Niger Delta region.
According to Ogbuku the World Health Organisation is discussing with us on health programmes, “In fact, they have written to us, saying that they want more meetings to explore collaborations in the execution of our free healthcare programme. They want to add professionalism and credibility to what we are doing.
“The participation of WHO in our medical outreach programme will ensure that those vaccines that we don’t have access to, are procured through them for the benefit of our people.
“We are not only looking at what they will bring to us in terms of funding, we are looking at their contacts, reach and expertise in the medical field.”
The Managing Director said NDDC was also discussing with the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, in the areas of youth development and rebuilding public trust to enhance service delivery in the Niger Delta region
Speaking on collaborations with other organisations, Ogbuku said the NDDC had made significant gains since it embraced Public-Private Partnership, PPP, as a major policy thrust.
He remarked: “Partnership is one of the major ways to achieve sustainable development in the Niger Delta region and it is important that NDDC, as the driver of development in the region, stays at the forefront of building the right partnerships.”
The NDDC boss said the PPP arrangement went beyond collaborations with International Oil Companies, IOCs, as it extends to other critical sectors such as health, education and youth development.
“In some areas, we are seeking technical assistance, not necessarily money. I can assure you that the PPP programme is gaining momentum and it is also gaining the interest of a lot of people.
“We are currently looking for technical support in the area of training for our staff, because we need properly trained staff that will be able to lead most of our programmes and they need to be updated on a regular basis.
“Some of these collaborations, especially the ones from the private sector, need to be studied carefully, because we can’t afford to mortgage the interest of our people. We are not just working for ourselves; we are representing the people of the Niger Delta and we must ensure that the right decisions are made.”
Ogbuku said that there had been positive fall-outs from the partnership arrangements, citing the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, between the NDDC and the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Limited, NLNG, to collaborate on diverse fronts in the delivery of sustainable development projects.
Reacting to concerns about the approach of the current NDDC Board to the policies introduced before their inauguration, Ogbuku said the board members were happy with the initiatives and had keyed into them.
