By Hosea parah, Abuja

The Statistician General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of Statistics, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, has charged the National Consultative Committee of Statistics (NCCS) on how to move the statistical system in Nigeria forward with each member, playing their respective parts.

The Statistician-General prince Adeyemi made this charge at the meeting of the NCCS on Wednesday in Lagos. The meeting which is bi-annual event with this year’s theme; the direct implication of sectorial statistics in curbing inflation. To provide updates and harmonise statistical activities in Nigeria.

Prince Adeyemi said, alll over the world today inflation has become an issue of major concern. One does not need to look too far to see or even experience the impact inflation is presently having on households and businesses both within and outside the country.

“You only need to listen to some of the numbers and headlines emanating from some African nations and beyond, to fully understand the severity of the global situation we are facing”.

He said, In Ghana, Ethiopia and Rwanda, inflation for the month of October was reported at 40.4%, 31.7% and 31% respectively. Countries in the West are also reporting record inflation figures, with the UK recording its highest rate of 11.1%, since 1981, a high of forty years. With these high levels of inflation, we can best imagine the effects on household consumption and poverty levels in those countries, and the report of this effect is all over the news.

Adeyemi said in critical moments like these when government and policymakers at different levels are seeking for ways and means to mitigate the effect of inflation and assist households to maintain their consumption levels, adequate and reliable data is extremely crucial. Times such as these call for a wide array of household, labour and establishment statistics, and not just the conventional headline inflation numbers.

He said, these numbers are required by policymakers to inform both fiscal and monetary measures, as well as help to track policies already taken to alleviate the situation.

“At the Bureau, we have been working hard to support government along these lines. Only recently, working with the World Bank, NBS launched two very important and critical household surveys, that is the Nigerian Living Standard Survey (NLSS) and the Nigerian Labour Force Survey (NLFS)”. He said.

He said, these two surveys when completed will provide detailed household information and insights into labour and welfare conditions in Nigeria, which are arguably two of the issues most affected impacted by inflation.

He further stated that NLFS is a strategic survey designed to collect and analyse labour market statistics for the country, including the generally understood and widely anticipated headline unemployment and underemployment rates.

He added that the unemployment and underemployment rates are very important figures that indicate the number of persons economically engaged, the NLFS also contains a lot more equally interesting and important information that offer useful insight into the health of the labour market in Nigeria.

“In addition to other data collection activities in the Bureau are just ways in which we are working hard, collaboratively to provide government with the information required to address the impact of inflation and other conditions, which as we can see is already some results, with a gradual month-on-month basis decline in the growth rate”.

He therefore charge the meeting on the need to remain relevant and collaborate as we move forward as a statistical system, particularly into new year, our role as a professional and independent assessor of socio-economic conditions in the country will become more and more pronounced.

Adeyemi said, we have to be alive to this responsibility and obligation, and deliver on our mandate. We must also take deliberate steps to enhance our individual and collective technical capacities, and develop the skills and competencies required of a modern statistician in this 21st Century.

He said such opportunities will be extended to the sub-national Bureaus that show real commitment and passion for moving the bar further along within their respective states.

Adeyemi further explained that starting in January next year, we will commence the zonal dissemination of the MPI Report launched in November. Under this process, the results of each state in the respective zones will be presented in more detail, including the methodology and computation process.