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Bagudu Emphasizes Need for Geospatial Ecosystem in Economic Planning

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By Tony Obiechina, Abuja

Minister for Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has emphasized the crucial role of geospatial technology in effective economic planning and development of Nigeria

The Minister who stated this while addressing stakeholders at the Geospatial Ecosystem Roundtable Meeting in Abuja noted that geospatial data has the transformative power and potential to drive evidence-based decision-making.

He stressed that accurate and up-to-date geospatial information was essential for policymakers to understand the dynamics of various sectors and make informed choices that could lead to sustainable economic growth.

The Minister underscored the need for collaboration between Government Agencies, private sector stakeholders and the geospatial community to harness the full potential of geospatial data to support data sharing, standardization and capacity building to build a robust geospatial ecosystem for national development goals.

He also underlined the significance of integrating geospatial technology into various sectors such as; agriculture, urban planning, transportation, and disaster management for policymakers to identify areas of improvement, optimize resource allocation and implement targeted interventions that address specific challenges.

The Minister highlighted the Government’s commitment to investing in geospatial infrastructure and capacity development, expressing his optimism about the future of the geospatial ecosystem in Nigeria.

He assured that by leveraging the power of geospatial technology, the country could achieve sustainable development, improve service delivery and enhance the overall well-being of its citizens.

According to him, the Roundtable meeting with relevant stakeholders remained crucial to the current administration’s Renewed Hope agenda which aimed at improving social welfare inclusion and security in the country.

He added that the use of geospatial data was vital and central to Nigeria’s developmental efforts and it needed to be well streamlined and coordinated for synergy.

“Strengthening the policy framework for synergy and collaboration in the geospatial ecosystem, as well as identifying relevant use cases for geospatial data in line with the government’s agenda is of utmost importance,” he added

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Nebeolisa Anako, explained that the Geo-Reference Infrastructure Demographic Data for Development, GRID3, stakeholders meeting was organized to further deepen the collaboration in production and utilization of geospatial data for evidence-based planning and programme delivery.

According to him, the GRID3 as an Inter MDAs Initiative aims to facilitate the production, collection, utilization and dissemination of high-resolution data on population distribution, administrative based maps of settlements, development infrastructure and sub-national boundaries to support the achievement of national development priorities, the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs and other humanitarian efforts.

While saying that geospatial technology was central to development planning for the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, the Permanent Secretary maintained that GRID3 constituted an important component of the National Monitoring and Evaluation system.

Also, the GRID3 Nigeria Country representative, Nasiru Aliu disclosed that the meeting would help chat a way forward on appropriate utilization of data in Nigeria by bringing together all the relevant national stakeholders in the ecosystem to discuss mandates, synergy and collaborations around the production utilization and use of the special data.

“This gathering is meant to address the critical issues or challenges across various sectors. So, we are gathering here today through the commitment of the federal government of Nigeria at the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning to bring everyone on the table to find out what are the challenges what are the issues and how can we strengthen collaboration among these agencies that are data-producing agencies and data users to know how the challenges can be fully converted into potentials for Nigeria.”

He emphasized the importance of having up-to-date population data for the implementation of development plans saying that it was also very important to see how the country can utilize new technology and the reason was that there were a lot of new innovations, we have seen things happening in other African countries and beyond which Nigeria must also key into.

Economy

Investors Gain N183bn on NGX

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The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.

Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.

The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.

68, against 98,206.
97 recorded on Tuesday.

Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.

74 per cent.

Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.

Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.

On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.

Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.

On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.

Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.

Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.

A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.

Meanwhile, ETranzact led the  activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)

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Economy

Yuan Weakens to 7.1870 Against Dollar

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The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.

The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day.
(Xinhua/NAN)

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Economy

Bring Kaduna Refinery Back into Operation, Youth Group Urges NNPCL

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Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged  Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL)  to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.

National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.

Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.

He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.

“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.

“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.

“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.

Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.

According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.

He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)

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