Ekiti State government has commenced the training of 485 enumerators and community relations officers as part of the implementation process of the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (STFAS) disbursement link indicator (DLD) 11.3 property record survey scheme.
Speaking at the training of the selected participants in governor’s office hall in Ado Ekiti, the Special Adviser/ Director General, Bureau of land, Mrs Funke Falodun disclosed that the training was designed to equip participants with knowledge that would enable them comply with the set procedures for the collation of accurate and reliable data during the programme.
The STFAS programme according to her, was to enable the state government have a digitalized record of the numbers of houses and other utility buildings in each of the communities in the state to enhance proper planning and implementation of government programmes and policies in the future.
Mrs Falodun disclosed that the enumerators would handle the collation of data from the field and electronically transmit same to the State geospatial data collection center where it would be processed and stored while the community relations officers would carry out enlightenment campaign across the state to sensitize the people of the state.
She said “We want to have an idea of how many houses we have, facilities available in those houses. At least when we gather the data it will be used for future development of the state and for planning purposes.
“our expectation from the participants is for them to do a very thorough job because we need a very accurate data, we don’t want to deceive ourselves, if we are planning we should know what we are planning on, we should know the number of people we are catering for, we should know the number of houses that we have, we should know the conditions of those facilities as well.”
Also, the Senior Special Assistant on Geographic Information System (GIS), Mr Bode Ogunyemi, who spoke with journalist shortly after the event, disclosed that the participants were drawn across the 177 wards in the State and would be equipped with digital facilities to carry out the programme.
Mr Ogunyemi explained that the concerns for the quality of data that would emanate from the field necessitated the training of participants on the rudiment of survey data collection processes.
He disclosed that in addition to several underground works that had been put in place to ensure the successful implementation of the programme, participants would still embark on a week-long rigorous training on use of computerized method of data collection.
Mr Ogunyemi explained that there were also plans for periodic review of participants’ performance and to ensure their consistency and compliance with world best practices of survey data collection procedures and rules.
“We are so much particular about the quality of data that would be gathered on the field and that is the essence of this training to ensure that the enumerators and community relations officers were adequately informed on how to go about gathering of reliable and verifiable data that would not compromise the purpose of the whole process.” he added.
