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Geospatial society seeks passage of Geospatial Society of Nigeria Bill
The Geospatial Society of Nigeria (GEOSON) urged lawmakers to pass its Bill 2020 into law to enable the society a legal framework to regulate utilisation of geospatial information technology.
Dr Matthew Adepoju, President, GEOSON said in Abuja, said there were lots of quacks practicing geospatial technology.
Adepoju explained that Geospatial as having location information attached to an issue for phenomenal understudy for appropriate decisions and planning.
He said that the availability of mapping, geographic information had encouraged amateurs to explore the practice, hence the failure of projects in the area.
“We submitted our bill to the National Assembly in September, the lawmakers and the Federal Government should pass the bill because we have a lot of quacks in the practice.
“Geographic Information System, an aspect of geospatial technology and its projects have failed not because money has not been spent, but the contracts have been given to quacks and it has stalled development.
“FG should encourage the practitioners by passing our bill speedily, so we will have the Act of Parliament to regulate, encourage, promote the state government, FG utilisation of geospatial technology,’’ he said.
Adepoju commended the FG for setting up the Geo-Referenced Infrastructure and Demographic Data for Development (GRID3) project.
The project, which he said was targeted at all states of the federation to collect accurate geospatially referenced data relevant to a variety of sectors, had helped the government take decisions on key national issues.
The president also called on the government at all levels to utilise a geospatial information technology system, adding that deploying it could save cost and generate revenue.
Port Harcourt DisCo implements new electricity tariff in 4 states — Official
The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) yesterday commenced the implementation of the new electricity tariff regime earlier suspended by the Federal Government.
The Federal Government had suspended the initial take-off of the new tariff following the outcry that greeted its earlier launch on Sept. 1.
Mrs Chioma Aninwe, an official in the Corporate Communications Unit of PHED announced the launch of the new tariff regime in a statement in Port Harcourt.
“PHED notifies its customers and members of the public in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers states that it has commenced the implementation of the revised service-based tariff.
“PHED implemented the revised service based tariff as approved by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) which took effect from Nov. 1.
“The revision stems from the consultative review meetings held among the Federal Government, labour unions and other stakeholders, following concerns raised by customers on the MYTO 2020 SRT tariffs.
“Due to concerns by customers, the tariff which was earlier implemented on Sept. 1 was later suspended on Sept. 28,” Aninwe said.
She explained that the new tariff classification was based strictly on service parameters, including quality of service measured by the average availability of power supply in a month.
Others are interruptions, frequency and duration of electricity supply as well as voltage levels that are not limited to infrastructural investments.
Aninwe also disclosed that PHED had decided to maintain the already categorised billing system that is structured on five bands on hours of availability of power supply.
“To this end, customers on Band A category on a minimum of 20 hours power supply per day are expected to pay N53.02 per kilowatt.
“Category B with a minimum of 16 hours power daily supply will now pay 52.59 per kilowatt, while Band C customers on minimum 12 hours power supply daily will pay 46.15 per kilowatt.
“In addition, customers on Band D and E categories receiving a minimum of eight and four hours power supply per day respectively, will maintain the old tariff structure.
“Consequently, Pre-paid metered customers on Band A to C and Post-paid metered customers’ bill for November billing cycle in their band categories will charge the new tariff from Nov. 1,” Aninwe said.
Aninwe appealed to customers in the PHED coverage states to ensure prompt payment of their electricity bill to enable the company to expand its networks.