Nigeria’s Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is using social media in facilitating swift responses to disasters and other emergency situations.
Speaking to HumanIPO in Lagos, Tom Obey, the agency’s consultant on ICT, said the agency has had to rely on reports shared on various social media platforms during crises, such as the ill-fated Dana air crash and flood disasters.
“In terms of disaster management, we’ve actually recorded good success by relying on information shared on social media through mobile phones communications,” Obey said.
According to him, the agency received messages residing in the affected areas via Twitter and Facebook which he said are accessible via smartphones.
“The tweets and posts were coming in from different locations across the country,” he said.
On the issue of network coverage, especially in areas that are not yet easily accessible, he said the agency is totally relying on the telecoms companies.
“Some of them have 90 per cent coverage,” he said, while asserting the fall in the cost of smartphones in Nigeria, a position shared by the minister for communications technology Omobola Johnson.
In addition, he said the agency is recording more traffic on its social media platforms than its website. This according to him, is a justification of the emerging preference for access via social media over conventional websites.
