Zulum unveils Borno’s 25-year Strategic Development Plan on Saturday

Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum will on Saturday, 13th November, 2020, unveil the State’s 25-year Strategic Development Plan document that will place Borno state on the path of rapid socio-economic transformation and growth aftermath of a decade long Boko Haram insurgency that led to the destruction of communities and livelihoods, and displacement of over one million people from their ancestral homes.

The document, which focuses on education, health, environment, human capital development, science and technology and agriculture among other drivers of growth, will help to guide the Zulum administration developmental agenda, setting out detailed planning policies in every sector, which planning officers even in successive governments will rely on to make their decisions on planning applications.

In a statement announcing the launch, Secretary to the state government, Usman Jidda Shuwa, on behalf of the Governor, Babagana Zulum, invites the public to the launch of the document, tagged “Borno’s 25-year Development Plan and 10-year Srategic Transformation Initiative.”

The event will hold at the multipurpose hall of the government house in Maiduguri by 11.00am prompt.

Daily Correspondents has obtained some extracts from the document, which places Agriculture at the heart of the state’s inclusive developmental story.

Recall that the Boko Haram insurgency has crippled farming activities in the state with many farmlands still inaccessible by farmers. This has led to abject poverty among many households and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the state who now solely rely on handouts from government and international organisations due to the risk involved in farming.

The document seek to explore different strategies and initiatives that took into cognisance the 72,000 square km land area of Borno and harnessing its other vast agricultural potentials, which include the production of livestock, fisheries and poultry.

“Significant investments have been made in agricultural equipment and machinery to harness Agriculture potential but has been dormant due to the insurgency which has restricted access to farmlands particularly in the northern part of the state close to the Lake Chad.”

“There are also many brownfield agro-processing that present an opportunity for investment and development of agriculture value chains on a large scale,” an extract from the document as released by the Zulum media team reveals.

The document also set a target of a realistic and achievable voluntary resettlement of 50% of IDPs by 2022 and closure of all IDP camps in Borno State by 2026.

This newspaper understands that since the coming of the Zulum administration over a year ago, about 30% of IDPs have successfully been resettled to their ancestral homes in a dignified manner.

Part of the extracts from the 25-year development plan document also revealed that the Borno state government will “ensure faster reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced individuals and families in affordable homes in secured and self- sustaining communities.

The theme of the document is “OurBornoOurSuccess.”