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 Daily Independent Online.
* Friday, July 23, 2004.
FG inaugurates panel on data
collection
By Sanya Adejokun
Senior Correspondent (Abuja)
and lekan sanni
reporter (Lagos)
Nigeria
on Thursday signalled its readiness to take full advantage of the
information age when it inaugurated a panel to advise on how to collate,
analyse and store macroeconomic data.
This is coming as the Lagos State
government has embarked on a series of firm surveys to establish a bench
line economic database for the state with the assistance of the World
Bank which is committing N90.3 million ($650,000) to the project.
Speaking at the inauguration of
the panel, the Presidential Economic Adviser Ode Ojowu said “The establishment of the
committee is aimed at building the needed credibility for the reform
programme of the government as articulated in the National Economic
Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).”
The eight-man committee is
headed by Odu Agboola, Director of Macro Economic Department of the
National Planning Commission (NPC).
Issues
to be addressed include those on the poor state of the national economy,
development of measures that will ensure data consistency across key
sectors, particularly measures for authenticating economic and financial
indicators, fiscal accounts and other related indices, as well as make
recommendations relevant to overall improvement of data storage.
According to Ojowa, who was
represented by his permanent secretary, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, the
establishment of the committee should now make it possible to accelerate
the process of information sharing through networking and also ensure
increased credibility and consistency of data.
He advised the members to
take advantage of the Integrated Financial and Economic Management
Information System (IFEMS) and the assistance being provided to the
Federal Office of Statistics by DFID to achieve the objectives.
“In
carrying out the assignment, adequate attention should also be paid to
the on-going reforms in the various institutions with a view to deriving necessary
synergy”, the Economic Adviser admonished while disclosing that the
National Planning Commission and its parastatals are currently being
re-organised and restructured for improved performance.
Other
members of the committee are drawn from the Central Bank of Nigeria,
Federal Office of Statistics, Office of the Accountant General of the
Federation, Budget Office of the Federation, Federal Inland Revenue
Service (RIRS), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and
Debt Management Office (DMO).
Data collected by the Lagos
State government at the end of the exercise would be used to implement
the Lagos Metropolitan Development Project (LMDP).
The LMDP was designed to
address some issues identified in the state’s ten point agenda which was
conceived during Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s second coming last year.
The 10-point agenda covers
such areas as the health sector, education, environment, communication,
land, drainage, and other social economic sectors.
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