By ABAH ADAH, Abuja
Nigeria’s Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (OSGoF) has proposed a budget of four billion, one hundred and five million, seven hundred and seven eight thousand, two hundred and sixty naira, (N4,105,778,260) towards undertaking some critical projects.
The budget comprises N2,434,764,029 for capital projects; N1,330,442,350 for personnel cost; and overhead of N340,571,882, according to a statement signed by Abu Michael, the head, Press and Public Relations, OSGoF.
The projects include crime mapping of some major cities in Nigeria for the military, police and other paramilitary agencies; development of road guide map of Nigeria for navigation; production of flood vulnerability maps, modelling and analysis; deformation monitoring of bridges, dams, and large structures; and large scale mapping of forests in northern Nigeria and other regions.
The 2024 budget was presented to the National Assembly’s Joint Committee on Works in Abuja by the Surveyor General of the Federation (SGoF), Surv. Abuduganiyu Adeyemi Adebomehin, who also defended the 2023 budget.
The budget has listed surveying and demarcation of Nigeria’s international land and maritime boundaries, internal boundaries, border facilities mapping; Right of Way (RoW) survey of federal roads, power lines and rail lines as some of the projects for 2024.
The projects also includes baseline digital data for international boundaries, cadastral survey of public properties, computerization of land titling; development of national digital repository of geospatial data and information; geo-hazard surveying and gravity measurement; establishment of digital gauges along coast and major rivers and data processing; bathymetric surveying and mapping of inland water ways of major rivers; and enforcement of the survey coordination act and its review among many more.
The Office’s appropriation for 2023 was N2,550,828,839 made up of N1,187,261,413 for capital projects; N1,123,902,622 for personnel; and N239,664,804 overhead.
According to the SGoF’s report, the Office received only N825,569,787.59 of its capital; N996,786,953.45 of its personnel cost; and N136,638,137.16 of overhead.
Surv. Adebomehin who also listed several activities of surveying and mapping at scales of 1:5,000 and 1:25000 for several for several needs; upgrading of ArcMap to ArcGIS PRO for surveying and mapping at a scale 1:5000; training of 30 staff on ARGIS PRO; refurbishment of data centre physical infrastructure including some RoWs as some of the achievements recorded in 2023, even as he appealed for the release of the balance of N591,833,961.39 of its 2023 budget to meet some commitments of the Office.