Ongoing Enumeration Exercise’ll Foster Socio-economic Devt, Improve Livelihoods, Says Obaseki

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki on Tuesday restated that the ongoing enumeration exercise tagged Data to Make Edo Great Again (Data to MEGA) would aid development planning, foster socio-economic development and improve the livelihoods of the state’s residents.

Obaseki said this when he received the Country Director of United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Jean Bakole, who led members of his delegation on a courtesy visit at the Government House, Benin City.

The governor noted that the enumeration exercise “is a programme where we have over 1,200 young men and women trained to collect data from the people for social interventions and economic planning.

“Data from Oredo Local Government Area (LGA) has already been collected in 20 days,” he added.

Governor Obaseki said the data collected will enable his administration to get adequate and credible data to plan for the people, adding, “This information will help the government to improve the lives of the people of the State.”

Obaseki, who noted that COVID-19 has plunged more people into poverty, assured Edo people that the data being collected by his administration will be used for economic governance and not political governance.

“We realised the importance of data and embarked on this project. We want to use the data for socio-economic planning and development and not for political governance. To drive industrialization, beyond data, you must utilize mechanisms to be able to analyze and evaluate that data into policies. You must have a system to achieve this.”

The governor further noted: “Benin City is the cheapest point to generate electricity as generation and transmission meet in the State. We have 1,000 megawatts generated here that goes to the grid.

“Technology is another focus as COVID-19 has changed the world. Technology rules the world and we want to emphasize technology to make Edo a hub for training technology capacity. We have the largest broadband connectivity in Benin City where we have about 400km of bandwidth”.

Earlier, Bakole hailed the governor for his administration’s policies and programmes aimed at improving the livelihoods of residents, reassuring the support of UNIDO in changing the narrative and transforming the state.

“UNIDO is here to support you and the people of Edo State to ensure the success of the administration and make life better for Edo people.

“Nigeria lacks policy in investment, trade and economic diversification. We have designed a country programme for Nigeria to address these issues to move the state forward.”