Ben Eguzozie
Rivers State, Nigeria’s high octane oil hub is to benefit from 69 critical projects aimed at developing border communities in Nigeria by the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA).
A littoral state, constituting nearly 30 percent of Nigeria’s 853km coastline, Rivers is home to hundreds of thousands of maritime border communities. The BCDA’s 69 projects earmarked for the state this year, include 43 constituency projects and 26 core capital initiatives.
According to the BCDA executive secretary, George-Kelly Dakorinama Alabo, the projects were selected following a nationwide needs assessment targeting border communities—both land and maritime. He identified key intervention areas as water supply, education, healthcare, agriculture, power, and social services, particularly in underserved regions disconnected from the national grid.
Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, the Rivers Sole Administrator, said there is need for close collaboration with relevant state ministries to maximize their impact, pledging the state government’s assistance, including the provision of office space for the BCDA’s zonal office in the South-South region.
Alabo, the BCDA executive secretary said there are over 26 million Nigerians residing in border communities across 21 states and 105 local government areas.
To make more impact in the mostly underserved border communities, the BCDA has received a tenfold increase in its funding by President Bola Tinubu, compared to previous allocations. Alabo said this increased funding is enabling more impactful interventions. He said the agency needs a permanent office in Rivers State to strengthen operations in the South-South zone.
Ibas emphasised the critical need for a strategic, community-driven approach to socioeconomic development in Nigeria, to curtail the imposition of projects that do not reflect the genuine priorities of local communities.
He pointed out the inefficiency of current development practices, where projects are often introduced without adequate consultation with the people they are meant to serve; stressing the importance of aligning interventions with the actual needs of communities to ensure sustainability and meaningful impact.
