Osinbajo Reassigns Ministers Duties In Buhari’s Absence.

BOOM! Osinbajo Reassigns Ministers Duties In Buhari’s Absence.

Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, inaugurated the Nigeria National Steering Committee, NNSC, and Nigeria National Technical Committee, NNTC, for Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development, GRID3 Nigeria.

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GRID3 Nigeria project works across all states in Nigeria to collect accurate, complete and location data relevant to a variety of sectors.

GRID3 aims to generate, validate and use geospatial data on population, settlements, infrastructure and administrative boundaries.

Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning chairs the GRID3 NNSC while Clem Agba, the Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, is the co-chairman.

The GRID3 NNTC is chaired by Yemi Kale, Statistician-General of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), while Dr Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) is the co-chairman.

Osinbajo said geospatial data of the scope and depth envisaged by the project was important for Nigeria’s development objectives and ambitions, especially with the issues of education.

“I think it is compelling, also there is a great need for this, and this will be extremely useful for planning and extremely, especially to everybody who is involved in the entire development enterprise.

“I think financial inclusion initiative will also benefit greatly from the GRID3 project.

“I think also there is some ingenuity about having the committees, about having double membership of the committees because that can enable data users and generators to come together and be able to interact at the same time,’’ he said.

In an overview of GRID3 Nigeria, Agba said that it was aimed at promoting the utilisation of geospatial data for better decision-making and delivery of interventions.

Ahmed, who was presented the GRID3 goals, said that it aimed at developing and promoting examples of data usage on health, education, agriculture, and water resources among others.

“Support planned national population and housing census activities and surveys.

“Develop in-country capacity to maintain and drive GRID3 philosophy in a sustainable manner and to continue to maintain and update the data portal,’’ she stated.