The North East Development Commission (NEDC) has concluded arrangement to acquire seven additional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines before the end of this quarter.
Similarly, the commission also said some 18 mega primary and secondary schools were built in the six states within the region, with each getting three schools, while two of them were at the final stages of completion.
Managing Director/Chief Operating Officer of the NEDC, Mohammad Goni Alkali, said this Thursday while briefing journalists in Abuja on the commission’s achievements in the last seven years.
He listed the mandate of the agency as being in four phases namely; Recovery & Stabilisation, Renewal, Expansion, and the Sustainable Growth phase.
Alkali, who said the outfit had achieved over 80 per cent of its earlier phase, said attention was now more on expansion and sustainable areas of its mandate.
According to him, health, which he described as a major area of the master plan, was receiving priority attention of the Commission.
He said: “In the whole of the Northeast, a region with a population of 28million, we have one MRI machine. This became a thing of concern to us and we gathered stakeholders in the health sector, and at the end it was agreed that one MRI was grossly insufficient.
“By the end of this quarter, the region will have 8 MRI module machines. In addition, we will have CT scan”
In the area of education, the NEDC boss said: “The Board approved mega schools, three each in the six states. They are eighteen in all and, except 2 that are almost completed, work had already been completed on all others. They are both in the secondary and primary school categories.”
On progress made in the areas of other infrastructure, he said at the height of the insurgency, “over 60 per cent of roads and bridges had become dysfunctional. But today, we have covered over 300 kilometres of roads in the region which had not been so enjoyed in last 30 years. These infrastructures cut across Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and others, over 50 bridges across the states, some completed and others ongoing.”
Regarding the power sector, he said the NEDC, through its Operation Light Up North East project, deployed solar-powered street lights and major modular solar power systems to restore security, boost night mobility, and revive economic activities in post-conflict across the six North-East states.
He said last year, 48,000 poles were put in place and 60,000 added this year, bringing the sum total to 108,000, adding that “this has reduced security challenge and boost the economic development of the area.”