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President
Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reappointment of Dr Yemi Kale as the
Statistician General of the Federation.
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The National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS) on Thursday in Abuja began the training of 120 officials on
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Baseline data collection for
administrative statistics.
BusinessDay
report continues:
Yemi
Kale, the Statistician-General of NBS, said that the training was aimed at
providing robust, realistic statistical information needed for setting
benchmarks and monitoring of progress in the implementation of SDGs.
Kale
said that the exercise would assist to strengthen the system of administrative
statistics in Nigeria statistical system.
He
added that it would instill a high sense of ownership and inclusion on efforts
made by government to provide other users of statistics with adequate and
reliable statistical information on SDGs.
Kale
explained that reliable statistical information was needed to accurately
quantify and communicate impact of various policies and programme interventions
to ensure that no individual or geographic area was left out.
According
to him, the challenge encountered by Nigeria from implementation of Millennium
Development Goals was due to lack of comprehensive and harmonized data for
monitoring progress of some targets and indicators.
He
advised that as Nigeria was preparing to implement the SDGs, there was need for
early preparations, to effectively monitor the goals.
He
noted that there was also the need to track progress towards achieving the
goals in a comprehensive and systematic manner at both national and sub
national levels.
He
said NBS was partnering Office of Senior Special Assistant to the President
(OSSAP) on SDGs and UNDP on collection of data for establishment of a
formidable benchmark for SDGs in Nigeria.
He
explained that 60 per cent of the data requirement for monitoring of SDGS came
from administrative statistics, “hence the relevance of the training’’.
Kale
said to bridge the existing gaps in data production in Nigeria, NBS had
embarked on series of statistical activities to close the gap.
He
listed census, job creation survey, general household survey and the
forthcoming Nigeria Living Standard Survey scheduled to take off in 2017 as
some of the activities to close the gap.
Earlier,
Ifeolu Falegan, from OSSAP on SDGs, said that the OSSAP office was mandated by
the Federal Government to coordinate all the data concerning SDGs in Nigeria.
He
said it was to strengthen the data gathering process in the country, adding
that it would also help to improve the technology and strengthen the nation’s
statistical administration.
Robert
Asogwa, Team Leader, from the Inclusive Growth Unit of UNDP, expressed UNDP’s
readiness to partner NBS on the training.
According
to him, with accurate data collection, it is easy to track development on SDGs
and to know whether a country is making progress or not.
He
said that South Africa did better previously on its data collection than
Nigeria, adding that this was the opportunity for Nigeria to get its data right
against the 2017 SDGs.
Asogwa
said there were about 221 indicators in SDGs to supply data to people, adding
that the media was key to training.
He
noted that the trainees were very essential as they were the ones that would go
to the field to collect data for people to work with.
Asogwa urged Nigeria to do well in its data collection so that it would be applauded in 2017 by UNDP.
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