The Federal Government is set to begin a nationwide remapping of Nigeria.
This is the first time in over five decades the government has made such a move, which it said would strengthen national planning, improve infrastructure delivery, and enhance good governance.
The Surveyor-General of the Federation (SGOF), Abduganiyu Adeyemi Adebomehin, announced this in an exclusive interview with The Nation in Abuja.
He said the initiative is one of his top priorities as he continues to lead the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGOF).
The surveyor-general said the new mapping would bring Nigeria in line with the United Nations’ recommendation that all cities of the world should be periodically remapped to reflect development changes and population growth.
Adebomehin explained that the mapping project would directly support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda by providing accurate, data-driven insights to guide investment decisions, urban development, and infrastructure planning.
The surveyor-general described an up-to-date geospatial data as the foundation of sustainable development and that the project would reposition OSGOF as a central player in Nigeria’s development process.
Read Also: Messi set to extend Inter Miami contract beyond 2026
According to him, the National Geospatial Data Infrastructure (NGDI) will serve as the backbone of the remapping effort.
The NGDI, he said, would act as a central digital repository where information on the location of schools, hospitals, markets, farms, and industrial sites across the country would be stored and accessed easily by government agencies, private sector players, and researchers.
The surveyor-general recalled that Nigeria’s last comprehensive mapping was carried out in the 1970s and that the country’s physical landscape has changed drastically since then due to rapid urbanisation, population expansion, and new infrastructure development.
Adebomehin maintained that remapping would not only capture these changes but also help define national and international boundaries more accurately, particularly with neighbouring countries, such as Cameroon, Benin Republic, and Niger.
He emphasized that the mapping project would rely on modern geospatial technologies and digital systems to ensure accuracy and accessibility. According to him, mapping remains the foundation of every form of development because it informs policy design, infrastructure delivery, environmental management, and security operations.
The surveyor-general described surveying as an indispensable discipline that cuts across virtually all sectors of the economy and plays a key role in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He stressed that while technology continues to shape the profession, geodesy — the science of measuring and understanding the earth’s size, shape, orientation, and gravity field — remains vital to modern surveying and mapping practices.
He identified inadequate funding as one of the major obstacles to achieving Nigeria’s mapping objectives.
Adebomehin said the United Nations recommends that every capital city should be remapped at least once every three years, using large-scale mapping to ensure no critical information is lost.
But he said limited resources have made it difficult for Nigeria to meet this benchmark.
Despite the financial challenge, Adebomehin expressed optimism that with renewed political will and inter-agency collaboration, the remapping exercise would begin within his new tenure.
