Federal government through the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning has sensitised officials of various ministries, departments, and agencies in Gombe State on the use of geospatial data for development planning and decision making.
At the opening ceremony of the sensitisation workshop held at Gombe International Hotel yesterday, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Nebeolisa Anako represented by the head of evaluation, Gomina Mohammed, explained that the workshop was aimed at enlightening the participants on the significance of geospatial data that takes into cognisance, locations in their development planning.
Geospatial data, or geodata, is data that includes information related to locations on the Earth‘s surface. It helps to map objects, events, and other real-world phenomena to a specific geographical area identified by latitude and longitude coordinates.
He said with geospatial information, the government can ensure equitable distribution of resources, and infrastructural development, visualise, and make informed decisions on developmental matters.
The permanent secretary said the federal government had already adopted the geospatial data in its planning and decision making, adding that the ministry wants to promote it in states to enhance the impacts of government activities on the citizenry.
It is also worth mentioning that the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning is playing a critical role in the development of the National Geo-information Policy and National Geospatial Data Infrastructure (NGDI) bill in Nigeria to create synergy among stakeholders.
To 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, health services, population demography, gender, and other vulnerabilities,“ he said.
