He is an entrepreneur and innovative thinker with a short but impactful public service career. Since stepping unto the public service turf, he has brought freshness, dynamism and deep insights to bear on the running of government business.
\n\u00a0
\nEkere loves to push the envelope. He life and career have been refined in the crucible of big challenges; he calls them his learning and growth opportunities.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nAppointed to the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer in August 2016 Ekere and his colleagues knew they were on a mission to change; not just the negative narrative of the Commission,\u00a0but the lives and fortunes of the region and its people.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nSo, while the four months between his appointment and inauguration in November 2016 provided the Board bonding opportunities, it served as well as a period to draw up a definitive roadmap for what they were determined to
\nachieve.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nWith concurrent liabilities at N1.7 trillion, poor public image, declining Federal revenues, rising regional poverty and developmental needs across the communities of the Niger Delta region, Ekere and his colleagues knew a
\ndifferent style and mindset was imperative, vital and urgent.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nThat roadmap, code-named\u00a0The 4-R Strategy,\u00a0involved \u2013 and continues to involve \u2013 restructuring the Commission\u2019s balance sheet, reforming the governance systems, restoring NDDC to its core mandates and reaffirming a collective commitment to doing what is right and proper.
\n\u00a0
\nImplementing the 4-R Strategy has\u00a0translated into the Board\u2019s decision to allocate 70 percent of its budget to the completion of on-going projects rather than start new ones and\u00a0a comprehensive audit of all NDDC projects across the nine states so the Board can have full visibility of NDDC\u2019s performance on a state-by- state basis.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nIt has resulted to, among many milestones,\u00a0the cancellation of\u00a0624 under performing projects worth more than N200 billion, inspiring a new wave of commitment among contractors to perform with integrity and efficiency; payment of billions of Naira of inherited debts to contractors and service providers; a resolution to an 18 year-old impasse between the Commission and NLNG on the payment of its statutory obligations to the Commission; and the implementation of urgent and necessary emergency projects to rescue deteriorating roads across the nine states, in order to save lives and property.
\n\u00a0
\nIt is also in keeping with the strategic roadmap that the Commission is now focused on projects with regional rather than isolated and local impact. In this regard, the Commission is now looking at such transformational projects as the Niger Delta Power Pool, designed to deliver 7000MW of power to the Niger Delta in support of initiatives to attract businesses to the region; the Niger Delta Enterprise Hub, a collaborative project to equip our young and enterprising people with the skills and resources to build global IT businesses and the Niger Delta E-Learning Project, a\u00a0collaboration between NDDC and
\nMicrosoft, alongside other leading US – based ICT firms, to revolutionize the education sector in the region through the provision of tablets or laptops to every student, with a full suite of textbooks that would personalize learning.
\n\u00a0
\nJust this March, the NDDC Board and management were in Araromi, Ondo State to flag off the construction of a\u00a0N19.2 billion Araromi-Akodo\/Ibeju- Lekki Road, connecting Ondo and Lagos states.\u00a0\u00a0The 50km road which will cut travel time between Ondo State and Lagos to under 50 minutes is a testimony to the new collaborative spirit of the current Board and Management at NDDC.
\n\u00a0
\nNsima Ekere studied Estate Management at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, graduating in 1986.\u00a0 In the years following, he has built successful businesses and garnered cogent national and international experiences in real estate, urban and regional planning, oil and gas, power and construction.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nEkere served briefly as Deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State between May 2011 – October 2012.\u00a0 Prior to that, he was the Executive Chairman of the Akwa Ibom Investment and Industrial Promotion Council, AKIIPOC, the state investment agency (2007 \u2013 2012).\u00a0 He also served as Chairman, Ibom Power (2008 \u2013 2011).
\n\u00a0
\nAt AKIIPOC, Ekere conceived and implemented the first private sector gas-to- power project in Nigeria, an innovative strategy to convert natural gas into feedstock for power generation, as a public – private partnership with the Akwa Ibom State Government.\u00a0That project led to the investment of more than $1billion of private capital in gas production and distribution facilities in Akwa Ibom State.
\n\u00a0
\nHe also developed and implemented a framework for State Governments to undertake power distribution within their states.\u00a0 He worked with the Office of the Vice President and the National Council on Power and the Governors of Cross River, Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom to create a special purpose vehicle, 4Power Limited, to assume responsibility for power distribution
\nacross the four states.
\n\u00a0
\nEkere is a teacher\u2019s son and grew up with the best assets teachers give: optimism, inventiveness, inquiry and passion for excellence. This has influenced his commitment to ensure that NDDC upgrades and strengthens educational institutions and infrastructure across the region.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He is also an advocate for offering our children the 21 st \u00a0century education that they need to
\ncompete and succeed in today\u2019s technology-driven world.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nNsima Ekere holds a number of professional qualifications including Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers, Registered Member, Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria ESVRBN; Senior
\nCertified Valuer, International Real Estate Institute IREI. Minnesota, USA.\u00a0\u00a0He is an associate member of the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation, IRRV, London.
\n\u00a0
\nEkere served tutelage with the firm of Nwankwo and Partners before setting up Ekere and Associates, a real estate firm with offices in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Uyo.\u00a0\u00a0He was the founding Chairman, Modev Nigeria Limited which provides engineering-related solutions to the power sector; Chairman, Kanash Limited, a civil engineering and construction company and Chairman F.EE Solitz, a renewable energy company.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
His unstated philanthropic gestures include strong investment in people development through regular award of scholarships and educational grants; provision of potable water to rural communities in his Edemaya Clan, Ikot Abasi and medical outreaches to rural communities.\u00a0 In 2012, Ekere, along with his siblings donated a state of the art Accident and Emergency
\nWard\/Trauma Centre to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital.
\n\u00a0
\nNsima Ekere,\u00a0Knight of John Wesley, KJW, of the Methodist Church Nigeria, is the winner of the\u00a0New Telegraph\u2019s Corporate Leadership Award\u00a0and\u00a0The Sun Newspaper\u2019s Public Service Award, both in 2017, in recognition of his
\noutstanding commitment towards transforming the Niger Delta Development Commission into an organization that works more efficiently and professionally to achieve its mandate.
\n\u00a0
\nHe is also the recipient of numerous honours and merit awards, including traditional titles in recognition of endearing contributions and longstanding service to his diverse communities.<\/p>\n
Hon. Nsima Ekere is the APC’s Akwa Ibom State Governorship candidate for the 2019 Governorship elections. On January 25, 2019, Hon. Nsima Ekere resigned as the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":24514,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[209,166],"writer":[],"class_list":["post-23321","biography","type-biography","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-person","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/biography\/23321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/biography"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/biography"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/biography\/23321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25046,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/biography\/23321\/revisions\/25046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23321"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blerf.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=23321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}