Sambus Geospatial Limited, a technology integration company, has called for the inclusion of Geographic Information System (GIS) in primary and secondary school curricula.
The company’s Managing Director, Ms Akua Aboah, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja on the sidelines of a two-day event tagged “Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) User Conference West Africa 2024.”
NAN reports that Sambus Geospatial Limited is the sole distributor of Esri software, among other products.
The Esri User Conference West Africa 2024 was hosted by Sambus Geospatial Limited with the theme “Geospatial Synergy: Mapping the Future Together.’’
Aboah said that the importance of the GIS could not be overemphasised as it had a lot of potential that needed to be tapped.
According to her, GIS is a computer system that analyses and displays geographically referenced information.
“GIS uses data that is attached to a unique location; most of the information we have about our world contains a location reference.
“I totally support the call for the inclusion of GIS in primary, secondary school curriculum; it is a very rich area and there are not much people who understand it.’’
She said that Sambus Geospatial Limited already had some strategies in place towards achieving this project.
“Every year, we visit about ten to fifteen secondary and primary schools where we take them through GIS education and at the end, we conduct competitions and give them gift items like phones, among others.
“This is part of why we organised this conference to make people understand more about the power of GIS in solving our problems.
“The bench mark of this conference is to inspire, collaborate and share.
“The essence of geospatial is to find location; there is nothing in this life that you do without finding location.
“When you are traveling; it is related to location; sending your kids to schools is also in a location; so, everything has a location.”
She said that the first goal in the Esri seminar was to invite university students after which students of secondary and primary schools would be invited in future conferences.
The managing director said that there were enough career opportunities in the GIS field noting.
“If you develop yourself in this field, you will not lack at all.’’
She said that the two-day conference brought together geospatial technology professionals, industry experts, decision- makers and potential clients across Ghana, Gabon, Liberia and Nigeria.
“The objective of the conference was to facilitate networking, knowledge exchange, showcase solutions, empowerment and fostering of collaboration and innovation in the geospatial domain.’’
Aboah said that for Africa to be properly developed, there was need to first of all, have locations within it on a system.
“That is how we map together; we can’t do it without mapping together,” she said. (NAN)
