By Olukayode Michael, Maiduguri
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is set to
develop a national database for disaster, loss and damage.
The modalities for the establishment of the database was finalized at a
workshop on disaster risk reduction in Abuja on Wednesday organized by NEMA
with the support of the United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction.
A press statement signed by the Head Media and Public Relations, NEMA, Mallam
Sani Datti said the The Director General of the Agency, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja,
who was represented by the Director Search and Rescue, Air Commodore Akugbe
Iyamu stated in his speech that the workshop was geared towards promoting and
aligning with global initiative of data management.
He said the training would focus on building national disaster-loss database,
which is a giant stride for the country as a whole and disaster risk management
in particular.
He said the DesInventer database would broaden the scope of disaster risk
management by registering not only large-scale events but also small-scale yet
frequent events in this era.
“in this era of increasing disaster occurrences in our nation it has
become pertinent to employ modern tools in keeping records of disaster events.
This will enhance for better planning, preparedness, mitigation and response
necessary in the management of disaster in communities” he added.
He thanked the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) for
funding such platform.
Programme Officer Risk Knowledge, UN Office for DRR Nairobi Regional Office for
Africa, Katarina Soltesova, had earlier said in her remarks that the objectives
of the workshop was to develop a national and Institutional capacities for
managing disaster risk information system and disaster loss database using
“DesInventer”.