Fashola tasks state governments on Digital Map development

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has called for the development of a National Digital Map for the whole country to enhance internal security, weather forecasts, agriculture and internal transport systems.

Fashola stated this in Abuja while swearing-in the president and nine other members of the Surveyors Council of Nigeria (SURCON).

The minister said there was need for all the state governments to come together and raise funds to digitalize all the mappings of their territories, adding that the mappings would then form the basis for the National Digital Map.

Fashola recalled that the issue was discussed at the recent National Council on Housing, saying “It will help our internal security enormously; the police will benefit from it, Civil Defence will benefit from it, weather forecasts and weather predictions will benefit from it, agriculture will benefit from it and our internal transport, rail transport, land transport will benefit from it.”

He said the success of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, recently launched by the President, would depend significantly on the work of the surveying profession for the revival, development and sustenance of the economy as well as launching it into global competitiveness.

The minister said the need for states to digitalize all the mappings of their territories had become expedient because of the importance of the exactitude of the science of surveying not only to national security but also to the safety of life and property.

Fashola assured the council of the Federal Government`s support for its optimal performance, adding that since the assumption of the present administration, the budgetary provision of the council has been expanded and would be sustained.

On the role of the council, Fashola said, “What this council is supposed to do is really to regulate the practice, the trade and profession of surveying; decide who and who are eligible to practice it, under what conditions and so on and so forth.”

He therefore, urged the council to discharge its statutory responsibilities without fear or favour in accordance with the oath of allegiance that they were sworn to.

Responding members, the President of on behalf of the newly inaugurated SURCON, Joseph Olorunjuwon Agbenla, promised that the council would discharge its responsibilities diligently.

Also speaking, the Surveyor General of the Federation, Ebisintei Awudu, pointed out that the Federal Government’s diversification drive in restructuring the economy, national security and National Sustainable Development would not achieve the desired result without the input of the surveying profession.

He pledged the determination of his office which, according to him, “is the nation’s apex mapping office which coordinates the activities of surveying and mapping,” to partner constructively with SURCON in the areas of leadership, research, policy and strategy formulations for better services to government and the citizens of the country.