(Ecofin Agency) - The development of the National Transport Data Bank in Nigeria is one of the priority investments in the 2021 budget, the bill for which was recently submitted to the National Assembly.

According to the Minister of Finance and Budget Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed (pictured), 1.51 billion naira ($4 million) will be allocated for the development of the database.

Created by a multidisciplinary team of statisticians, computer scientists, and economists, this bank will be a decision-making tool for the programming of national sectoral policies. Once operational, it will guarantee the centralization, non-redundancy, and harmonization of information from various state and non-state sources.

Let’s note that a preliminary field survey was initiated in November 2015 by the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), in partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the feasibility of this project. The transport sector contributes about 1.6% to Nigeria's nominal GDP.

Romuald Ngueyap