Nigeria requires $718.8m for statistical development in 5 years —Report

STATISTICAL agencies and departments at the federal and state levels require a combined budget of $718,808,002 to function effectively for national development between 2017 and 2021 according to the second National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS ll) document launched in Abuja on Wednesday.

The document also identified that National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) should be completely autonomous and report directly to the President.

According to the document, launched during the National Consultative Committee on Statistics (NCCS) meeting noted that policy planning, monitoring, evaluation and decision making need a reliable, relevant, credible and sustainable national statistical system.

Of the $718.8 million, NBS, with staff strength of 2383 would require $115,816,656 for personnel, overheads, capital and other strategic objectives.

States statistical agencies (SSAs) including Federal Capital Territory (FCT) would need $115,816,656, while departments of planning research and statistics of ministries, departments and agencies were estimated to need $117,688,271 for their various needs within the period.

While noting that “the central focus of NSDS is to ensure the existence of Statistical System in Nigeria that will be capable of effectively meeting local, state national and international data needs”, the document recommended that the Statistician-General must be a person who has passion for statistics.

“There should be a Deputy Statistician-General; the Board must be made up of Statistical Technocrats; the Act must be widely publicized and fully implemented; the penalty for failure by data suppliers to supply information to producers of statistics must be made to serve as deterrent. The present penalty is too small.”

In his address to the gathering Statistician-General, Dr. Yemi Kale drew attention to “to the fact that, there is in our country today, great yearning for a new direction.

“Therefore, there is no doubt that the current dispensation bestows on us, as producers of official statistics great responsibilities.”

According to him, part of the outcomes of NSDS l was that 22 states have established their Bureau of Statistics while others are at various stages of developing their statistical systems.

He said NSDS ll was designed to provide a framework for the development and ownership of statistics in the country by sufficiently equipping the system in terms of Human Resources, essential tools and infrastructure to produce and disseminate reliable and timely statistics that will assist in the formulation of government policies to enable her achieve some developmental goals as entrenched in the current Government Policy Thrust.