The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has said that it has developed a new concept of working with the Niger Delta Chamber of Commerce in the coaching of youths and upcoming business owners in the Niger Delta region.
Speaking during a youth interactive conference hosted by the NDDC in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, the Managing Director of NDDC, revealed that the commission would partner with the Niger Delta Chamber of Commerce to help small and medium-scale businesses in the Niger Delta region.
He said, “We are thinking of establishing a Niger Delta Chamber of Commerce that will support young business owners in the area. It is no longer good that our youths will be at home and receiving grants. Hence, we are transforming the NDDC Youth Volunteer program to Youth Internship Programme where youths will be connected to organizations for one year to learn skills.
“The chamber of commerce will help us to guarantee that the program is sustainable. We will concentrate on empowering young business owners because the government cannot hire everybody. We will employ the youths to work for the benefit of everyone.
Ogbuku noted that the NDDC was pursuing collaborations through stakeholder meetings, stating that the goal of the meeting was to get responses from the youths; interrelate with them, and prepare them on the forthcoming projects being planned for them.
“The consolidation of ideas starts from the conception stage. That way, when the program starts operating, the ideas of stakeholders are already included. We believe that the youths must contribute to whatever plans we have for them.”
The leader of Rivers Youth Forum, Blessing Fubara, in her address, encouraged the NDDC to make the Youth Interactive Forum a quarterly occasion, mentioning that the current administration in the Commission had shown satisfactory appeal in providing for the welfare of the masses.
In his closing remarks, Major General Charles Airhiavbere, (retd.), Executive Director for Finanace and Administration for NDDC, guaranteed the youths that the new initiatives tendered by the commission’s Managing Director had been included into the commission’s funding for 2024.
