Muhammad Nazir Halliru was the immediate Special Adviser to the Executive Governor of Kano State on Budget and Economic Planning. Before then, he was a Senior Advisor with GRID3 Inc. and also served as the Nigeria Country Manager for GRID3 with Columbia University in the United States. In this role, he served as the focal point at the federal level supporting national policy decisions and development under several initiatives and programmes set up by the Presidency to use fundamental geospatial data layers on population, administrative boundaries, settlements, and points of interest, to support planning in health, education, food security, etc. Nazir coordinates with various government agencies at both national and subnational levels including development partners (Gates Foundation, UNFPA, World Bank, UK’s FCDO, AfDB, WHO, and UNICEF, among others). His experience qualified him to be a pioneer member of the BMGF Geospatial Insights Advisory Board for one year.