The Delta State Government has launched a three-day intensive training on Data Analysis and Visualisation to enhance effective planning, decision-making, and service delivery across its civil service.
Organised by the Ministry of Economic Planning in collaboration with the Universal Investment and Development Company Limited (UIDC), the workshop kicked off on Thursday at the Prof. Chike Edozien Secretariat, Asaba. It aims to equip selected civil servants with modern digital tools to process, interpret, and visualise data for informed governance.
Declaring the training open on behalf of the Commissioner for Economic Planning, Mr Sonny Ekedayen, the Director of Statistics, Ms Nkechi Maduemezia, described data as “the new oil” that fuels strategic development.
“Data is information. Data is life. Data is the future,” Maduemezia said. “Analysis is talking to the data, and visualisation allows you to see and interact with it without being physically present. With the right data tools, decisions can be made faster and more accurately, even by non-technical users.”
Maduemezia, a member of the Computer Professionals of Nigeria and the Nigerian Statistical Association, urged participants to fully engage in the sessions, stressing that mastering data technology would make them more agile and better equipped to support decision-makers with visualised insights.
In his remarks, Dr Timothy Igbinosa, Head of Corporate Strategy and Planning, represented by Mr Godwin Mukoro, CEO of UIDC, said the public sector must urgently embrace digital transformation to remain relevant in a technology-driven world.
“We live in a digital age—phones, vehicles, the internet, everything is driven by technology,” Mukoro noted. “We must intentionally run fast to catch up with global civilisation. The gap we discovered between current practices and modern data analysis methods inspired this workshop. We must not be left behind.”
He categorised civil servants into three groups—those with little or no digital capacity, those who know the tools but don’t use them, and those who actively apply them—challenging participants to “think outside the box, change templates, and drive innovation” in governance.
Also speaking was Mr Gbe Lewis, a capital market consultant, who reaffirmed UIDC’s commitment to capacity development in the state. “UIDC is a finance and management development company owned by the Delta State Government and supervised by the Ministry of Finance. We are proud to support this workshop because data analysis and visualisation are essential for growth and efficiency,” he said.
He commended the Ministry of Economic Planning for its strategic role in driving service delivery and expressed optimism that the training would significantly improve participants’ analytical competence.
The workshop will feature hands-on sessions in data handling, analysis, and visualisation, equipping participants to contribute more effectively to evidence-based governance and policy formulation.
