TheCable

The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) is seeking to partner with stakeholders to generate a database of people living with disabilities in Nigeria.

James Lalu, executive secretary of the commission, disclosed this on Thursday at the Human Rights Radio in Abuja.

Lalu was represented by Soji Adewale, director, planning research and statistics of NCPWD.

Adewale harped on the need to gather the data of different PWD clusters in order to ascertain the actual number of assistive devices that will be needed by disability groups.

“As you may be aware, some data management organisations have postulated that the number of persons with disabilities in Nigeria range from 15 to 28 million,” he said.

“But due to the growing population of PWDs in Nigeria, the commission is willing to partner with all interest groups to provide an accurate data for proper planning.”

He also informed the public that the commission had done the registration for PWDs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mnenga Shiiwua, the program officer, accountability lab for NCPWD, also emphasised the need for a database.

She added that the availability of one will make it possible for PWDs to easily access public infrastructure.