The 36 governors under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) have pledged to use all relevant data to ensure that palliatives distribution gets to the most vulnerable persons in the most effective and efficient manner. The forum gave the assurance in a communiqué issued on Thursday after its 4th teleconference meeting, which was signed by its Chairman and Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State. The communiqué noted that the governors at the meeting deliberated on the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and resolved as follows: “The NGF Chairman briefed State Governors on ongoing COVID-19 coordination efforts between the Forum and various organizations, including the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Coalition Against COVID (CACOVID) and MTN.“The Forum received an update from the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, on the response of his ministry to the COVID-19 pandemic.“The update includes support to state governments to help them identify vulnerable persons through a data mining study coordinated by the Nigerian Communications Commission with the support of telecommunications providers in the country.“The Forum commended the Minister for taking a functional role in the COVID-19 response and assured him of their resolve to use all relevant data available to target palliatives to the most vulnerable persons in the most effective and efficient manner.”It added that the governors were taking necessary measures to strengthen operations in their Emergency Communication Centres (ECCs). The measures, according to the communiqué, were to improve the communication response between distressed citizens and Emergency Response Agencies (ERAs), including the State Emergency Agency, Ambulance, Police, Fire Service, and the Federal Road Safety Corps. It added that the operators would be resident in the ECCs to process distress calls and contact relevant ERAs.The governors also resolved to adopt a new data on vulnerability profile of all states to strengthen the distribution of palliatives put in place and support from various organizations and persons. This, according to the communiqué, followed an update from Olubayo Adekanmbi, Chief Transformation Officer, MTNNigeria, on ongoing work with the NGF Secretariat to estimate the vulnerability profile of all states.“The vulnerability profile of all States based on their population age risk, international travel profile, population density and state contiguity, epidemiological metrics and spending patterns,” it stated.
