President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday inaugurated the board of the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The Commission is to be chaired by Gen. Paul Tarfa (rtd).

The Commission, which is to oversee the rehabilitation of devastated communities in the North-East region caused by Boko Haram insurgency also received ₦10 billion as take-off grant.

At the inauguration which took place shortly before the start of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, President Buhari directed the board to take over the activities and structures of all government-funded agencies working in the region.

Before now, various organizations set up by the Federal Government have been involved in the reconstruction, rehabilitation and provision of humanitarian services to the people affected in the North-East.

Some of the organizations which are expected to either collapse into the NEDC or seize operations include the Theophilus Danjuma-led Presidential Committee on the North-East Initiative (PCNI) and the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) which is controlled by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

The President also asked the board to ‘as a matter of urgency, conduct comprehensive survey of all states in the zone to determine the reconstruction and rehabilitation needs of all the socio-economic sectors of the zone and develop an intervention master plan based on the outcome of the assessments’.

He said that in order to avoid duplication of efforts and waste of scarce resources, the new board would be the focal organization which would assess, coordinate, harmonize and report on all the intervention programmes and initiatives that the Federal Government or any of its ministries and agencies are involved in.

“You must, therefore, constantly liaise with the relevant Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), States and other Developmental Partners for the implementation of all programmes and initiatives and proper utilization of funds released for intervention in the zone,” Buhari said.