By Festus Ahon

THE Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has assured that it will intensify its efforts in providing basic infrastructure in schools across the Niger Delta region so as to raise them to enviable heights.

Books on display in one of the I-READ mobile libraries on January 30, 2018. The Jazz Hole is an independent record and book store in Lagos. AFP
The ‘mobile library’ project was launched, in 2013, by Funmi Ilori. Today, she has thirteen employees, 1,900 books and four vans. She visits four to six schools each day, and organizes reading workshops with volunteers on evenings and weekends in the slums for out-of-school children. / AFP PHOTO / STEFAN HEUNIS

The NDDC Acting Executive Director, Projects, Engr. Samuel Adjogbe, gave the assurance when members of the National Executive Council of the Government College, Ughelli Old Boys Association, (Worldwide) GCUOBA, led by its President General, Arch Charles Majoroh, paid him a courtesy visit at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt.

Adjogbe, who is an alumnus of the college, said the NDDC would contribute substantially to the restoration of the Government College, Ughelli to its glorious days, noting that the Commission would undertake the renovation of two hostel blocks in the college in addition to providing other facilities to enhance teaching and learning in the school.

He said the NDDC had constructed a 3.8- kilometre road in Government College, Ughelli, adding that it was part of the Commission’s mandate to develop the Niger Delta region.

The Acting Executive Director, Projects noted that the college was just one of many public schools in the Niger Delta region to have felt the impact of NDDC’s intervention.

Adjogbe said that the efforts to restore educational institutions back to their glorious days had long kicked-off through the NDDC school renovation programs with the supply of desks and benches and emergency internal road repairs in some schools.

He thanked the National Executive Council of GCUOBA for acknowledging the contributions of the NDDC, as well as his by decorating him with an insignia of the college.

The President General GCUOBA Worldwide, Arch. Charles Majoroh, said the corporate award given to the NDDC at the 2018 Annual Dinner night in Asaba was in recognition of the commission’s commitment to the mandate of making a difference in communities and institutions in its mandate states.

He said that the old boys of the school had raised a pool of funds through donations for the restoration and building of facilities in their alma mater. He commended the NDDC for providing critical infrastructure, such as internal roads, desks and benches in the school.