Statistician-General of the Federation

Muhyideen Jimoh
Jan, Mon, 2025

Gambia Bureau of Statistics takes study tour to NBS

175 total views today

By Okeoghene Akubuike

The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) is undertaking a study tour to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as part of efforts to enhance its statistical capacity.

The Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, said the five-day tour was aimed at sharing knowledge on how to move the statistical system forward in both countries and Africa.

According to Adeniran, the GBoS team will learn how the NBS adopts international best practices in the production of its data.

He added that the GBoS would also learn new ways of producing data and application of technology and innovation of data production.

“The GBoS have come to learn from us in Nigeria how we produce our National Agriculture Sample Census and the sample survey that followed it.

“They also want to learn how we are able to produce labour force statistics on a quarterly basis for many years without failing.

“As you recall, we revised our methodology of computing labour force and labour market statistics in recent times in conformity with ILO standards that all countries are using.

“As attestation to that, the GBoS is coming to learn how we were able to have changed to accommodate the new methodology and start producing data based on that.

“They want to see how they can go back and leverage on the kind of technology we use in NBS to help them produce data in their country”.

Adeniran said that Nigeria had the best statistical system in Africa, which was why the GBoS and other West African countries came for study tours.

He said that the NBS had been able to achieve this feat because of the support the bureau received from the Federal Government through the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning.

Adeniran said the federal government had given the bureau independence to apply sound methodology to data production and to engage stakeholders in their data production process.

“ If we were not the leading statistics office in Africa, the GBoS would not have come here, and we have come of age in terms of standards, best practices and the number of data we produce.”

Adeniran assured the GBoS team that there would be knowledge sharing from the different sessions and they would get the best out of their visit to the NBS.

Earlier in his remarks, the Statistician-General of the GBoS, Nyakaasi Sanyang, commended Adeniran for his commitment to the development of statistics in the region while encouraging him to keep the momentum.

Sanyang said the tour would provide the GBoS the opportunity to learn best practices, innovative methodologies and effective data production techniques from the NBS.

He added that the tour would also provide knowledge sharing and foster regional collaboration.

“We are here to learn something we do not know and it was not by accident.

“We made consultations with our development partners, the World Bank, and they did the research for us.

“They found out that Nigeria is the best place for us to go and study how the labour force survey and the Agricultural Census Survey is being conducted.”

He said The Gambia last conducted their agriculture census in 2011 and it was purely paper-based.

“ So, we need to go and learn the innovative ways of conducting agriculture census and quarterly labour force survey.

“Nigeria is a big country in Africa and therefore, its position is critical in moving statistics forward in Africa.

“If Nigeria is moving with the times, it will support other African countries,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tour has as it’s theme “Enhancing Statistical Capacity: A Study Tour on National Agricultural Sample Census and Labour Force Survey”. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng )

Edited by Vivian Ihechu

Muhyideen Jimoh
Nov, Tue, 2024

Economy/Business

Education: FG committed to technology-driven data in sector

365 total views today

By Okeoghene Akubuike

The Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, says the Federal Government is committed to producing accurate and reliable data in the education sector by adopting technology.

Adeniran said this at the 2024 African Statistics Day celebration organised by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Abuja on Monday.

The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that the theme of the Day is “Supporting Education by Modernising the Production of Fit-For-Purpose Statistics.”

The statistician-general said the theme was a clear reminder of one of the major issues facing the African Statistical System and, by extension, the global system.

Adeniran said these challenges were in light of recent changes and advancements in the data ecosystem which was being driven by technology.

He said traditional methods and statistics were inadequate and innovative approaches and information were needed to address the challenges in today’s world, including that of the education sector.

“As the Coordinator of the statistical system in Nigeria, I am glad that members of the system are already realising the fact, that we must innovate, adapt, and change.

“ We must make these changes if we are to remain relevant in providing policymakers and all users with timely, relevant and reliable data.

“At NBS, we have adopted the mantra of innovation to stay relevant in meeting the demands of our mandate.

“This is in line with the Data Innovation Lab (DIL) initiative of the African Development Bank and the Roadmap for the transformation and modernisation of official statistics in Africa being championed by the African Centre for Statistics.”

Adeniran said the NBS had set up a Data Innovation Desk within the Bureau to advance, monitor, and track all data innovation initiatives across its production and dissemination processes.

“All of these are in a bid to ensure that we provide the right data, which is a critical tool for development to all our users in a timely manner and in a way that is useful and suited to their needs.”

On the theme for the celebration, he said NBS had made some strides in that regard.

Adeniran said in the 2022 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS-6) that data was collected for the first time on children aged three and above, expanding from the previous focus on those aged five and above.

According to him, this effort alone has resulted in more robust information on early childhood development in Nigeria, which is in line with the National Education Policy.

Adeniran said the NBS had supported several programmes in the development of the education sector which includes the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA).

Others, he said, included a pilot programme which would use technology to strengthen the collation, validation and dissemination of administrative statistics across Federal Ministries Departments and Agencies(MDAs)

Adeniran said the programme, supported by the World Bank, would start with 15 MDAs and education statistics had been chosen as one of the focus areas in the pilot.

“By the end of the exercise, there will be a significant enhancement in the quality and accessibility of administratively generated education statistics in Nigeria.

“This will ensure that users, most especially, those involved in designing, implementing and monitoring educational-related policies and programmes, have unfettered access to this information to support their work.”

Jutaro Sakamoto, UNICEF’s Education Manager in Nigeria, said there was a need to improve education data in Nigeria, saying it was not often accurate, robust, timely and used for decision-making.

The consequences, Sakamoto said, would undermine the effectiveness and accountability of policy actions.

He pledged UNICEF’s commitment to support the Nigerian government in transforming the education data governance ecosystem in Nigeria. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Vivian Ihechu