UNIDO meeting: OSGOF, NACHRED set for hydropower development nationwide

The Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (OSGOF) and the National Centre for Hydropower, Research and Development Energy Commission of Nigeria (NACHRED) have collaborated in developing hydropower nationwide,

According to the statement released on Monday both Agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) after a successful paper presentation at United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Abuja.

The objectives of the MOU is for The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN ) through OSGOF, is desirous of providing geo -spatial data and services to support and transform hydropower development in Nigeria in general and in particular, to a level of assuring national and state development and create socio –economic improvement .
OSGOF as the government agency of the Federal Government is responsible for providing geospatial data and services, and formulating and executing policies in this regard, has decided to encourage partnerships within the public sector to foster hydropower development nationwide.

Also NACHRED, with its primary objective as a research institution is dedicated to advancing hydropower development in Nigeria and has the expertise to conduct extensive research leading to hydropower development, including data mining, data cleaning, processing and interpretation

The Director of Geodesy at OSGOF, Surv. Duniya Magaji who represented Surveyor General, Surveyor Abduganiyu Adeyemi Adebomehin said “At this very important meeting of signing of MOU, the fact is that, it is something we have been looking forward to.
“Most of the offices that have problems is due to lack of synergy, collaboration. Therefore, I am sure with what we are trying to do today, we believe it is going to go well for both of us. We have gone through the document and we can all agree on it”, he added.

On his part, the Director in charge of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing /Mapping Surv Azeez Afeez at the Office of the Surveyor-General said “I commend UNIDO recognition and their programme to create small Hydropower Nationwide to complement the bigger ones such as Kanji, Shiroro etc especially in serving the community and to share power from the grid.

“The OSGOF was invited for presentation, during the presentation , from the conceptualization of this idea, to design to implementation, including monitoring for feasibility of this project you need survey and mapping”.

He said, “everyone at the UNIDO event agreed that OSGOF is needed for the exercise, for research and development , most of our data is going to be free, we support most universities and research institutions with free data.
“If we have hydro here and there, it will serve two purposes; it generates more power to the farm and can be used for farming and other stuffs, collaboration is going to help the country to move forward”, he added.

The Deputy Director from NACHRED, Dr. Toyin Olugbemi who signed the MOU on behalf of her organization said “When we work together we achieve better because no man is an island.

“This meeting was initiated as result of meeting at UNIDO with OSGOF, we knew for sure we needed to collaborate with OSGOF to be able to succeed in our mission.“

Engr Dr Ladokun Laniyi the Chief Research Officer at NACHRED said “ During the feasibility study , it was agreed that data was the issue, we believe that this collaboration will bridge that gap in terms of topographical data and so many other things that will assist us in doing the work through the aid of OSGOF.