‘Why BRISIN project is delayed’

By Laja Thomas

Managing Director of Dermo Imprex Nigeria, Dr. Antony Uwa has  given reasons for the delay in implementing the Basic Registry and Information System in Nigeria (BRISIN), an integrated data and information project for Nigeria since 2007.

Uwa in a statement said the project was approved by the Federal Executive Council in its May 18 2007 meeting with the FCT as pilot, and a service agreement was signed between the Federal Government represented by the National Planning Commission (NPC) as coordinating agency, and the service provider Dermo Impex.

Dr. Uwa  said bottled neck bureaucracy  and vested personal interest in the Ministry of  National Planning  has stalled the project since 2007 when funds was budgeted for its implementation.

He said: “since the award of the project in 2007, funds was released  by the FCT Ministry which was approved as pilot state to the Ministry of National Planning but the ministry for reasons best known to them refused to release the money to us, the unfortunate story is that the Planning Commission pushed the company into borrowing money to start the project in 2008, but in 2013 we have made moves towards implementing the integrated data and information for Nigeria.”

Appealing to  President Goodluck Jonathan to call National Planning Commission to order and stop playing politics with project of national interest, Uwa explains that the project will create about 10 million jobs in 10 years, control crime rate among  other numerous benefits.

He lamented that lack of integrated data and information management infrastructure remain the biggest impediment to Nigeria’s socio-economic development.

Dr. Uwa said Nigeria must begin to realize that the modern Information Management approach is the missing link in its development efforts, particularly the absence of a culture of harnessing information, facts, figures, data, and statistics, as the driving force of development, as practiced by the developed countries of Europe, America, and Asia.