As we step into a new year, the Niger Delta DevTrack team extends warm greetings to our partners, stakeholders, community leaders, civil society actors, and citizens across the Niger Delta. A new year represents renewal, clarity of purpose, and an opportunity to recommit to the values that define our work. For us, this moment is particularly significant. It marks the transition from vision to execution.
In the coming weeks, Niger Delta DevTrack will formally commence project tracking activities, beginning with a pilot phase in select local government areas across Akwa Ibom State. This pilot is not merely a technical rollout; it is a foundational step in building a robust, credible, and citizen-centered data intelligence platform for development projects in the Niger Delta. Through this pilot, we will refine our methodologies, validate our data models, and deepen engagement with local communities and institutions that are critical to long-term success.
The rationale for starting with a focused pilot is deliberate. Development challenges in the Niger Delta are complex, multi-layered, and often obscured by fragmented information. By grounding our work in specific local governments, we can ensure accuracy, context sensitivity, and accountability from the outset. The lessons learned in Akwa Ibom State will directly inform scale-up efforts across the wider region.
Niger Delta DevTrack was established to address a persistent gap: the absence of accessible, up-to-the-minute information on public, private, and community-funded projects. Across the Niger Delta, billions of naira flow annually through government budgets, donor programs, oil and gas interventions, and host community development trusts. Yet citizens often lack clear answers to basic questions: What projects were approved? Where are they located? Who is implementing them? What is their current status? DevTrack exists to make these answers visible, verifiable, and easy to understand.
Our long-term vision remains ambitious and unwavering. Within five years, Niger Delta DevTrack aims to reach up to 40 million people across the region with real-time, actionable project information. This is not simply a matter of scale; it is about impact. When citizens are informed, participation improves. When data is transparent, governance strengthens. When stakeholders share a single source of truth, waste, duplication, and abandonment are significantly reduced.
As we begin this new year, we invite governments, development partners, the media, researchers, and community organizations to see Niger Delta DevTrack as a shared public good. Our platform is designed to complement existing institutions, not compete with them. Collaboration will be essential as we work to build trust, standardize data, and institutionalize transparency as a norm rather than an exception.
The year ahead will demand discipline, partnerships, and continuous learning. It will also offer an opportunity to redefine how development is tracked, discussed, and delivered in the Niger Delta. We are grateful for the support already shown and look forward to walking this journey together.
From all of us at Niger Delta DevTrack, we wish you a purposeful and impactful new year.
