By Hosea parah, Abuja

The Statistician-General of the Federation, National Bureau of Statistics, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, has on Monday declared the training workshop for the Nigeria Living Standard Survey opened to generate quality data be useful for policy decisions by government and interested stakeholders.

While declaring the training of enumerators for the 2022/23 Nigeria Living Standards Survey (NLSS). Open in Ibadan. He urged the participants to play their part judiciously to the success of the excercise.

Adeniran said this program has been carefully and meticulously designed, with the aim of not only equipping you for the survey but also with the aim of giving you a broader understanding of the concept of poverty and living standard measurement. This has been done deliberately and is in line with management’s renewed resolve to enhance the technical capacity of staff across the Bureau.

He said, in May 2020 during the thick of the Covid-19 pandemic, NBS released the 2018/19 Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS) result, which provided the first official estimates of poverty and welfare in Nigeria after almost a decade. The report which recorded a headline national poverty rate of 40.1 percent, collected detailed data on consumption, education, health, employment, housing conditions, and other key non-monetary indicators of welfare.

“This round of the NLSS is a follow-up to that one. This automatically means that expectations and public anticipation for this survey is high. The reporting of poverty and welfare statistics by default can be a very sensitive and delicate issue. This is because it is one of the indicators commonly used to assess government performance and the impact of its policies and programmes on the lives of the citizens, so this survey is one that is widely anticipated.”

The Statistician-General urged the participants to dedicate themselves now that we are in an election season, where the results would be used to score political points. The anticipation or expectations from the exercise is high So, you must dedicate yourselves to this training and commit to delivering the quality work I know you can produce.

He commended the World Bank for their support as a Working colleagues, we have adopted and are set to deploy international best practice in the conduct of this exercise. This includes all aspects of the survey, particularly in the collection, monitoring and processing of the data. Some of the new additions include modules on Remittances, Migration and Absentee Household members, Migration Aspiration, Social Cohesion, Petrol Subsidy, and also Subjective wellbeing.

“In line with our commitment to continue to modernize and ensure data quality of the highest level possible, the survey will be administered electronically using the Computer Assisted Personnel Interviewing (CAPI) Devices.”

He said, the adoption of the CAPI device will improve data collection by making it faster, eliminate human errors such as unwanted entry, increase quality control, reduce cost of questionnaire printing, and boost

He also appealed for the cooperation of the respondents and households across the country, selected for data collection.

Earlier in an address the Project Director and Director, Field Services and Methodology, National Bureau of Statistics, Mr. I.Z Maigida described the training as crucial to fully equip participants with the knowledge on the project to enable them collect the required data at the commencement of field work.

Maigida added that the training will ensure enumerators are familiar with the key aspects of the survey and how it is conducted, be aware of common issues that may arise during survey activities, the problem-solving strategies to address these issues; recognize the fundamental value of good-quality data and be motivated to ensure data quality as part of their activities.

“this training will equip you with a clear understanding of the survey protocols, survey instruments and the key roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the survey, including specific tasks and timelines.” He said

He, therefore advised the enumerators to pay attention to all that would be taught, so that they understand all that is expected of them on the field. Ask questions and seek clarifications on any subject that is not clear to you, for further clarity.