|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Hyginus Odo
Organisations involve in statistics management in Nigeria including ; the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO), International Labour Organization (ILO), State Operation Coordinating Unit (SOCU), have commended the Enugu state government for the process taken to gather and make appreciable management of data to eradicate poverty in the state.
They gave the commendation at a two-day workshop organised by the office of the Commissioner for Human Development and Poverty Eradication, and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Donor Relations with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration, to initiate a move towards gathering data of the poor and proffering a means of alleviating their condition after analysis.
Speaking in the second day of the workshop, the representative of NBS and Head of Housing Statistics Division in that organization, Mr. Akinloye Adeyeye Elutade stated that apart from the fact that data was key in trying to solve a problem, the Enugu State government had already started well.
“Well, I must be honest with you, let me cease this opportunity to commend the government of Enugu state that has organized this programme through the commissioner for human capital development. It’s a good idea.
“Since we came here yesterday, we have listened to different speakers and we see that the government in place in Enugu state is really ready to address the issue of poverty in the country. And I believe that it’s one of the reasons why they are taking this step to embark on survey called ‘multi-dimensional poverty index survey’ because that is the survey that can actually go down to the grassroots level and to show those that are actually poor in the country.
“For them to have done that, I believe they are ready and I believe that the outcome of this workshop is something that the government will be able to utilize in order to address the issue of poverty in the state.”
Mr. Akinloye reassured the Enugu state government that having always been of immense assistance to the state, that they would not go back rather than offering helping hands whenever called upon as far as statistics and data management were concerned.
Responding to questions from the journalists, the IPA country Director, Funmi Ayeni, said that the first thing has been taken in terms of initiating data gathering process. She assured to support the state government in terms of “technical assistance, collaborating with the data stakeholders, ensuring that we collect the right data, helping them to build credible evidence and even to use such evidence, because when you collect all these data, then what next? How do we even design this intervention? So, it’s all about measuring and making sure that we have what is needed. The actual outcomes, the impact that the governor desires, which is poverty eradication, zero poverty in Enugu state are those things that are needed to be actualized.”
In her appraisal, the State coordinator of Enugu SOCU, Mirs. Joy Blossom Eneh, stated that “this is the first of its kind, we are so grateful to the governor. We say God bless him for having this kind of thing for the poor. We are grateful.”
Mirs. Eneh added that having organized such programme, the next level was implementation pointing out that the issue then was what to do to totally eradicate poverty in the state.