SPEECH BY THE MANAGING DIRECTOR (MD/CEO), NORTH CENTRAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (NCDC), AT THE FIRST-EVER NORTH CENTRAL STAKEHOLDERS DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT, 14TH–15TH SEPTEMBER 2026,

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0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10. 0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language:#007F;} SPEECH BY THE MANAGING DIRECTOR (MD/CEO), NORTH CENTRAL DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (NCDC), AT THE FIRST-EVER NORTH CENTRAL STAKEHOLDERS DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT, 14TH–15TH SEPTEMBER 2026, CONTINENTAL HOTEL, ABUJA THEME: “A GREAT LEAP FORWARD- A 20 YEAR ECONOMIC, INFRASTRUCTURAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR NORTH CENTRAL REGION” Protocols It gives me great pleasure, and a profound sense of responsibility, to welcome you to this historic moment for our region — the First-Ever North Central Stakeholders Development Summit.

This is not simply another conference. It is not another gathering at which we exchange speeches, make declarations and return home to business as usual.

This Summit is intended to be a turning point: a moment where the North Central moves from a collection of states with enormous but fragmented potential to a coordinated regional economy with a common vision, investable projects, integrated infrastructure and shared prosperity, anchored on the draft 20-Year Economic, Infrastructural and Social Development Plan we are placing before you today. Before we discuss about our future, we wish to acknowledge those whose statesmanship made this moment possible: His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR for assenting to the Establishment Act that turned a longstanding aspiration into a statutory institution; the National Assembly and the NCDC Committees of both chambers, for their legislative guidance; our supervising Ministers and members of the Federal Executive Council for their support, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Dr.

George Akume, CON , the North Central Governors' Forum under the Chairmanship of Engr. A.

A Sule (The Executive Governor of Nasarawa State)   and the Honourable Minister of the FCT, for political ownership from the earliest stages; Key stakeholders and elder statesmen of our region, Traditional Rulers, Religious Leaders, Youths and Women. Our gratitude to all our Development Partners who have stood by the Commission from inception, believing in this vision long before it had taken concrete shape and walking with us through the early, uncertain days of building an institution from the ground up, particularly SPRiNG.

    The North Central Moment The North Central sits at the heart of Nigeria's economic geography — connecting northern and southern markets, hosting the nation's capital, and blessed with agricultural land, water and mineral resources, a young population, and a growing base of universities and enterprise. The question before us is therefore not "What does the North Central have?

" We know the answer. The real question is: "How do we convert this potential into productive assets, competitive businesses, quality jobs and measurable improvements in the lives of our people?

" That is the challenge of this Summit, and that is why the NCDC exists. Our Mandate The NCDC was established by the North Central Development Commission (Establishment) Act, 2024, covering Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, and the FCT, with responsibilities spanning transportation, agriculture, security, entrepreneurship, industrialisation, employment, health, education, housing, water, electricity and telecommunications.

But a mandate alone will not transform a region. Transformation will require vision, political will, private capital, technical competence, institutional cooperation, community participation and, above all, the discipline to think and act regionally.

The NCDC does not see itself as a replacement for the six state governments and the FCT, nor a duplicate of existing federal institutions. Our role is to serve as a regional coordination, development and investment-enabling platform — identifying constraints, convening stakeholders, mobilising partnerships and monitoring implementation for the benefit of the entire region.

From States to a Regional Economy Investors do not see the boundary between Benue and Nasarawa, or between Kogi and Niger, the way governments do. They see markets, supply chains, corridors, resources and labour pools.

This Summit therefore proposes a new development logic: we must compete globally by collaborating regionally. Our agriculture should   not merely produce raw commodities; it should feed regional processing industries.

  Our minerals should not leave our communities as unprocessed ore; they should become industrial inputs. Our roads, railways, waterways and dry ports should not stand as isolated projects: they should form regional economic corridors.

And our young people should not merely seek employment; they should become the employers of the next twenty years. That is the philosophy behind the draft 20 Year ECONOMIC, INFRASTRUCTURAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN we place before you.

Twenty years may appear distant, but a railway cannot be planned for one election cycle, an industrial city cannot be built in two years, and a skilled population cannot be created overnight. We need a development architecture that outlives individual administrations.

Our vision is straightforward: a North Central region that is productive, connected, secure, inclusive, innovative and globally competitive — one whose success strengthens Nigeria. ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS.

We should therefore not aspire to be merely Nigeria’s agricultural region; we should aspire to be one of Africa's most competitive agro-industrial regions. Agriculture without processing creates low-value work; agriculture joined to storage, logistics, finance and export markets creates an economy.

In minerals, our ambition must move beyond extraction to value addition, responsible mining and formalisation of artisanal operators; work already begun with the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development,   including discussions on a Special Purpose Vehicle for the sector. And none of this succeeds if we ignore the millions of MSMEs who are this region's everyday economy.

INFRASTRUCTURE INTEGRATION. A road is not simply a road, it connects farmers to markets; a dry port is not simply a facility, it lowers the cost of trade; digital infrastructure is not simply connevtivity, it is the foundation of commerce, finance and governance.

This is why the corridor approach matters: Instead of asking “what project can my state secure? ” , we should ask “ what regional insfrastructure unlocks the greatest value for our people?

”. We have opened discussions with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission on the Regional Railway Network, the Ajaokuta Steel revival, dredging of the Rivers Benue and Niger, Baro Port and the Jos Dry Inland Port.

  SOCIAL INCLUSION. Development is ultimately about people.

Of every investment we should ask plainly: who benefits? If a mining operation creates no local value, we must ask why.

If a new corridor by passes the young people and other population leaving around it, we must ask why. Therefore, development must be inclusive to be sustainable.

From Conference to Deal Room The most important feature of this Summit is that we do not intend to end with speeches; we intend to end with deals, pipelines and commitments. Investment-ready opportunities from the six states and the FCT will be taken into structured Deal Rooms, and projects will be classified honestly — Tier 1 ready, Tier 2 requiring structuring, Tier 3 still at concept.

We must stop presenting every idea as though it were already an investment opportunity; investors need data, feasibility, land information, revenue models, risk allocation and confidence that a project will survive a change of administration. On financing, the question is always: where will the money come from?

From many sources — federal and state resources, development finance, commercial capital, foreign and domestic private investments, PPPs and concessions, grants and blended instruments. Our philosophy is that every naira of public money should be deployed to unlock a far larger pool of private capital.

If ₦ 1 of public investment unlocks 10 of productive   investment, we have created leverage; that is the logic behind our Board-approved Investment Company. An Invitation, and an Expectation To investors, the North Central is open for business, but we are not inviting you to extract value — we are inviting you to build value with us, come with capital, technology, management expertise, markets and a long-term commitment to our people.

Our proposition is partnership, not patronage. And to Their Excellencies: this Commission cannot build the region alone.

We ask each state and the FCT to bring forward not merely projects seeking government funding, but projects capable of attracting investment — with land, data, policy support, clearances, sponsors, and above all, political commitment. The State Technical Working Groups should not end with this Summit; they should become permanent project-development machinery.

  Development Must Be Measurable Five years from now, we should be able to say how many jobs were created, how much private capital was mobilised, how many kilometres of strategic infrastructure were delivered, and how much minerals and agricultural values were added within this region. Not the number of meetings held, not the number of   memorandas signed, but the number of lives changed and investments delivered.

Our Commitment On behalf of the Governing Board, Management and Staff of the Commission, I make this commitment: we will listen, coordinate, facilitate, partner, mobilise, monitor and remain accountable. We will not promise that every problem of this region can be solved overnight, but every opportunity we identify will receive serious attention.

We will not pretend the road ahead is easy, but we will insist that it must be travelled. Let us therefore move from potential to productivity; from raw materials to value addition; from isolated projects to regional corridors; from ideas to bankable projects; from government spending to investment mobilisation; and from competition to collaboration — from regional potential to regional prosperity.

Let us build a North Central where investment creates opportunities, opportunity creates jobs and jobs creates dignity, and dignity creates peace, a region whose success strengthens Nigeria. And let us ensure that when future geneartions look back at this gathering, they will say: that was the moment the North Central decided to build its future together.

You are most welcome to Abuja and to the begining of the new era of regional development. Thank you.