From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (OSGF) has promised to deploy a Geographical Information System (GIS) expert to the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA) to help establish its own GIS Unit.
The Surveyor General of the Federation, Surveyor Abuduganiyu Adebomehin stated this when the Executive Secretary of BCDA paid him a courtesy visit in his office.
He pledged his office support and collaboration in the areas of mapping, identification and information regarding border communities across the country.
“If it pleases you, we will be ready to draft one of the best hands to be with you and be in charge of your GIS, as it would not be meaningful if you don’t have someone who understands the transformation and coordinate systems,” he said.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA), Dr. Dakorinama Alabo George requested for unparalleled collaboration with the OSGF to fill in the gaps and with the vision to reposition the agency to be able to fulfil the mandate for which it was established.
“We have borders spread along 105 local governments in about 21 states, across all the geographical zones but access to some of these communities is difficult.
“So, you begin to wonder how they survive. This is one of the reasons we need the support and collaboration of the Surveyor General’s Office so that we can properly locate and reach out to them and get to know their needs.
“We need every information you can give us regarding our border communities because you have been in touch with them; you have a lot of border data and we want to depend on your field data. We want to tell you that we want to re-establish the collaboration and the existing synergy between your office and our agency” he said.
In a statement, Head, Press and Public Relations of OSGF, Sani Datti said that the Executive Secretary noted that he recently requested approval from the presidency for the establishment of a GIS Unit in the agency as he wanted a dedicated desk for liaison between the agency and the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation.