The Federal Government on Friday inaugurated the National Poverty Dashboard Situation Room, PDSR, situated at the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, headquarters in Abuja.
The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, who commissioned the project, described it as a veritable tool for harnessing the poverty situation in Nigeria.
The minister said that the idea behind the project was to create a data hub of poverty and welfare information with different features where policy discussions could be hosted.
Agba disclosed that the data hub would enable the public to acquire more knowledge on the concepts and methods on how poverty measurements are carried out.
The minister stated that the Multidimensional Poverty Index, MPI, Report inaugurated on Thursday revealed that poverty was prevalent in the rural areas at 72 per cent, compared to the urban areas at 42 per cent.
Agba, therefore, called on state governors to focus on the rural areas as a way to end poverty in Nigeria.
”This is because, at the subnational level, governors pay attention to the state capitals as we can see from the results of the MPI report.
“I see a linkage between population growth rate and a lack of infrastructure in the rural areas", he added.
He lamented that farmers, who produce over 90 per cent of the food consumed reside in the rural area and are not making sufficient profit from farming.
Agba stated that MPI would help states and regions to identify the problems peculiar to them and deal with them decisively.
The Statistician-General of the Federation, Prince Semiu Adeniran, said that the PDSR would serve as a one-stop shop for accessing all kinds of poverty-related data in Nigeria.
Adeniran said that the laboratory would contain all types of tests on poverty and will provide useful results at both the national and state level.
He stated that the laboratory would diagnose and dissect every problem associated with poverty, saying that commissioning the poverty dashboard situation room is another milestone recorded by NBS.
The NBS Director of ICT, Mr Biyi Fafunmi, who led guests on a tour of the laboratory said that the PDSR was equipped with adequate infrastructure and facilities.
Fafunmi said the idea of the PDSR was to support President Muhammadu Buhari's vision of lifting 100 million persons out-of-poverty in 10 years by producing and disseminating poverty data in an unconventional way.
He noted that the laboratory has a large screen to display any information on poverty, and the room is soundproof and equipped with adequate security.
In addition, the laboratory would enjoy uninterrupted power supply and access to the internet that would be linked to the NBS local network.
He said that some features of the laboratory include a dedicated poverty dashboard and website, which would be interactive; while an in-house experts would provide explanations on the poverty indicators.
Comments
Post a Comment