BY CLEMENT MARKUS, MARCH 24, 2022 | 09:50 AM
A bill to amend the North-East Development Commission Act 2017 for the enlargement of its financial provisions has passed a second reading in the Nigerian House of Representatives.
The house passed the bill on Tuesday during its plenary.
The bill was sponsored by Mansur Manu Soro, member house representatives, representing Darazo/Ganjuwa Federal Constituency, Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim, member representing Damatura/Gujba/Gulani/Tarmuwa federal constituency and 47 others.
Soro who spoke to several newspapers, explained that the amendment seeks to increase the reasonable period of two critical sources of revenue of the commission by an additional 10 years, which provides for atleast 15% of Ecological Funds and 3% of Value Added Tax respectively for period of 10 years
This to support the commission to adopt creative financing mechanism by saving 15% of its total revenues and to establish Development Trust Funds across the federal constituencies of the six member states.
‘The bill also aims at deepening the impact of the commission on the lives of every resident of member states through strategic capital development across the critical sector of the economy, Soro said.
Other benefits, he said, is that when it is passed into law, it will financially sustain the operations of the NEDC, enable it to fully-accomplish the North East Master Plan and increase the speed of its interventions in the sub-region.
He said this while appealing to the relevant stakeholders in the sub-region, traditional, religious and political leaders to support the bill at public hearings and insist on its timely passage.
Established in 2017, NEDC is the focal organization charged with the responsibility to assess, coordinate, harmonize and report on all intervention programs and initiatives by the federal government or any of its ministries, departments and agencies, states governments and other development partners and for the implementation of all developmental programs and initiatives for the sub-region.
Among other things, it is also peddled with the responsibilities to coordinate the resettlement, rehabilitation, integration and reconstruction of infrastructure for victims of terrorism as well as tackling the menace of poverty, illiteracy, ecological challenges in the states under the commission and other related matters.
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