Creating Database For Economic Planning

The plan by the Lagos State government to register all residents of the state is to create a database for economic planning for the teeming populace of the state. Kazeem Ugbodaga, Senior Staff Writer reports

With an estimated population of about 20 million, Lagos State, southwest Nigeria is faced with the problem of adequate planning for its teeming residents. The government right now cannot give an accurate figure of duly employed residents of the state, the number of artisans and traders among others; thus, the need for fresh registration of all residents in the state becomes imperative.

In 2011, Governor Babatunde Fashola came up with the idea of fresh registration for all residents living in the state. To this end, the governor sent a bill to the State House of Assembly to establish the Lagos State Residents’ Registration Agency, LSRRA, and for connected purposes.

LSRRA aims to develop a working database of all residents of Lagos State, with a view to providing better services to Lagosians. The underlying principle being that with such a database, the state agencies can plan and assess their programmes and services in a more scientific way.

The functions of the agency are: to create a reliable database of all residents in Lagos State with a view to providing useful information for social welfare, political, security, business, employment, financial activities, housing and demography statistics for health-related matters such as provision of health insurance and facilitating unified planning and implementation of development projects; to establish the relevant infrastructure for the creation of a residents’ information database for every resident of Lagos State with a view to producing residency cards for all residents of Lagos State, ensuring easy identification of residents, generating health statistics in the state for health insurance scheme, verifying compliance with relevant laws and regulations and providing reliable information for making policy planning and implementation.

The agency also has the objective to produce guidelines for data to be contained in the registration form and advise the government on mode of collecting data from the public.

Section 14 of the law states that “(1) as from the commencement of this law-(i) every person residing in the state shall register with the agency within three months; (ii) any person who moves into a long term accommodation in the state after the commencement of this law shall, within 30 days of moving into the accommodation, register with the agency.

Section 14(2) adds that a resident shall notify the agency of a subsequent change of name or address appropriately and that “(3) every landlord (individual or corporate) in the state shall notify the agency of any new resident in their premises and shall inform the person of the need to register with the agency.”

The agency is expected to issue a certificate of registration upon registering a resident in the state. For ease of administration, the agency will establish registration centres in the local government councils and local council development areas.

Since the signing of the LSRRA bill into law by Fashola, the agency undertook a pilot project work by capturing the database of all civil servants in the state. The agency, in the next few months will begin capturing of database of all residents of Lagos for adequate planning and formulation of policies that will benefit the populace.

According to Governor Fashola, the registration is compulsory for all residents of the state, adding that the objective of the registration was to provide a database of all residents in the state for better planning and governance.

He said the government was also carrying out the exercise in view of the security concerns raised by the influx of illegal aliens into the state lately, adding that all residents, irrespective of ethnic background or other variables would be captured in the exercise as government had the responsibility to cater for everyone, regardless of where they come from.

“I use the word ‘residents’ deliberately and advisedly, because it applies to every person of whatever faith, colour or ethnic group, who is a Nigerian, and who lives in Lagos. The benefits will be immeasurable. I have received a number of text messages and emails expressing concern about the presence in our state of people categorised as aliens from other countries.

“Until such a time as we begin to provide identification, which this programme will do, it will be difficult to separate immigrants from residents, especially as I remain mindful of our treaty obligations regarding freedom of movement within the ECOWAS sub-region. We had commenced a pilot registration exercise with the public servants to test run the project before coming to the larger public,” he explained, adding that the card, apart from being used as identification, would also be used by residents to access government services.

A statement from the LSRRA said that the objective of the registration was to provide a database of all residents in the state for better planning and governance, saying that “over 21 million people are estimated to be living in Lagos and there would be need for government to have their data base in its record. The registration exercise will be carried out in view of the security situation and the influx of illegal aliens into the state.”

The exercise was supposed to have begun in January 2013 but due to logistic reasons, it could not start. The exercise is expected to capture all residents, irrespective of ethnic background, as well as foreigners, including tourists. This is because government has the responsibility to cater for everyone residing in Lagos, regardless of the state or country they came from.

At the end of the exercise, resident identity card would be issued to those captured during the exercise, to differentiate between legal residents and illegal immigrants. With this, it is expected that the state government would be able to accurately determine the overall resources required in formulating and implementing policies, projects and programmes, after the exercise.

In preparation for the commencement of its statutory responsibility of registering the residents of the State, LSRRA held an open day for the public and civil servants in the state to intimate them of the coming residency registration and to garner their support for the success of the exercise.

General Manager of LSRRA, Ms. Yinka Fashola, said the residents registration is necessary to provide government with an up to date database of all those who reside in the state to ensure effective planning and resource allocation.

According to her, the agency had earlier organised stakeholders meetings across the five divisions of the state, stressing that another one was being planned for the captains of industries to ensure that everybody was included.

“The registration exercise is for everybody, including children residing in Lagos State irrespective of their age, tribe, religion, social status or nationality as long as they reside in Lagos State.

She revealed that in preparation for the actual registration exercise, LSRRA had commenced the process of employing 1,000 applicants as enrolment officers to be deployed across the state to register residents.

On whether people working in Lagos, but residing outside the state can participate in the registration, she said, the laws establishing the Agency was being considered to determine the eligibility of such registration.

“The registration exercise is free and compulsory for people residing in the state. The two methods of registration that would be employed are the online and direct registration by LSRRA staff. For either of the methods, the registration would not be complete without capturing the biometrics and digital image of the applicant and signature for adults after which a receipt of registration would be issued.

“The registration exercise is a continuous process due to those who may not be available to register during the direct registration exercise and for residents who might have travelled abroad can also register online and later come for biometrics registration at LSSRA office when they return,” she explained.

According to her, “Mobile registration teams are being enabled to enrol all those that live in inaccessible areas, the physically challenged and elderly who might not be able to easily reach the registration stations. Mobile teams will also register organisations and other business entities such as markets and factories that have large number of people on site so as not to disrupt their day to day activities. We would however not carry out door to door service.”

“With the exercise, every resident will possess a highly secured unique identification card, which would also remove the veil of anonymity from every citizen of the state. The database will serve as a register that will contain all the demographic information of all residents of the state.”

Fashola added that sophisticated technological features, including finger prints would be employed to authenticate and validate the registration process as well as the identity cards, which residents would be able to utilise in transactions with any government agency.

“It contains a unique reference number (residency number) that links every individual to his or her own personal and biological data. The residency number serves as a reference for the prospective individual in his/her identity proved transactions with government bodies,” she explained.

She said 57 registration stations had been sited within the 20 Local Government areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA), urging residents to take advantage of the process.

“If you currently reside in Lagos, you are required to register .If you are newly taking up residency in the state and intend to stay for more than six months, you are also required to register. Anyone who wishes to access the services provided by Lagos State will be asked to authenticate their residency and identity,” she added.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology, Mrs Funmilayo Animashaun said the process was not to tax residents but to authenticate the users of Lagos State Government’s services and provide an authentic database to plan for the provision of such services. Vice Chairman of the Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Science and Technology, Gbolahan Yishau said the registration process, when completed would assist government in planning as well as allocating resources where it is needed.

“This process will allow government to determine the overall resources required to formulate and implement policies, projects and programmes when the number to cater for is known. It will also allow for proper allocation of resources to the appropriate sectors of the economy to meet the needs of residents of the state,” he stated.