Niger govt commences plan for urban renewal – SSG

From Yakubu Mustapha, Minna

The Niger state government has commenced plans for the state urban development policy with 2.6 million dollars international partnership with South Korean government for urban renewal under United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN- Habitat).
The Secretary to the State Government SSG Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Matane who is the technical committee chairman dusclosed this yesterday at a press briefing in Minna.
He said that the state will begin its town hall meeting with stakeholders for concensus building in four cities of the state which includes; Minna on 16the November 2019, Suleja on 3rd December, 2019, Bida on 19th November, 2019, and Kontagora on 10th December, 2019 respectively.
Matane stated that the composition of the said meeting would consist of councils acting Chairmen, traditional rulers, Director of works and planning, youth and women leaders, NGOs, Assembly members and other relevant stakeholders, adding that the report would be forwarded to the state assembly to enact a law for its sustenance.
He explained that the policy will be funded through counterpart fund and will be prepared through a bottom- up and stakeholder driven process that will give the government and the people objective basses, among other things to build consensus.
He said that this sought to build consensu on the causes and effects of the current development challenges of towns and cities in the state as well as build consensus on present and future sustainable development path for the state.