From Magnus Eze, Enugu
The federal government has tasked states to adopt geospatial technology for planning, monitoring and evaluation of economic development projects and policies.
At the South East sensitization on geospatial data to improve delivery of economic development targets and mandate in Enugu, Thursday, government noted that it will help in distribution of projects especially in health and education sectors.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Anako Nebeolisa, represented by a senior officer in the ministry, Olatunde Oniyanda, said the technology had become vital and central to development efforts globally.
He explained that geospatial data are information pertaining to space or spatial component such as location, adding that it supports government in taking important decisions for development.
“With geospatial information, government can visualize and take informed decisions on resource allocation, infrastructure development and other developmental matters.
“Government at the Federal level recognizes the role of geospatial data in effective planning and decision making, hence, the need to cascade this knowledge to states, as part of the collaboration between national and sub-national government to promote national development, it has become imperative to carry along State governments in the institutionalization of the use of spatial evidence to support decision making,” he said.
He said that the institutionalization of capacities was imperative to analyze and visualize geospatial data to support the planning and service delivery of programmes and projects under the National Development Plan (NDP) 2021-2025.
According to him, the ministry was playing critical role in the development of the National Geo-information Policy and National Geospatial Data Infrastructure (NGDI) Bill in Nigeria with the aim to create synergy amongst stakeholders; prevent duplications and promote consolidation of resources that will be used in supporting sub-national governments to “uptake the use of geospatial technology for planning and project delivery especially in equitable distribution of infrastructure for education and health services, population demography, gender and other vulnerabilities.”
Enugu State Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Chris-Roberts Ozongwu said the state would embrace geospatial technology in its development drive.
He noted that the ongoing private sector-driven economic development in the state would be much easier and impactful if decisions were based on geospatial data.
“As part of our planning like in the ongoing massive urban renewal in the area of roads, in education, we have smart schools and other projects, so, it’s going to be of tremendous help to us in Enugu,” Ozongwu said.