By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has commenced the process of data collection on MICS 6/NICS 2021 starting with the Training of Trainers(TOT) workshop in Lagos on Wednesday.
A statement by NBS Head of Public Affairs and International Relations Mr Sunday Joel Ichedi in Abuja on Tuesday, said immediately after the workshop, some selected trainers will be sent to four states (Anambra, Kano, Plateau and Oyo) to conduct the pre-test exercise.
According to him, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS6/NICS) is the largest source of statistically sound and internationally comparable data on women and children worldwide, focusing on issues such as; health, education, child protection, water and sanitation, amongst others.
“The survey also serves as a major source of data in measuring achievements of some of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other international commitments.
“The first round of MICS in Nigeria was conducted in 1995 by the then Federal Office of Statistics, now National Bureau of Statistics. Since its inception, a total of 5 rounds have been conducted with technical support from UNICEF”, he stated.
Ichedi further said that as NBS commenced the implementation of MICS6/NICS, “we appeal to the general public for their maximum cooperation towards the successful completion of the project. We specifically appeal to the media and our potential respondents in this regard as their contributions is key to successful outcome of the survey.
“The media should kindly play their traditional role of information dissemination by informing the general public of the need to volunteer information to NBS teams of data collectors during the data collection exercise in all the states of the Federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“NBS wishes to assure all our respondents that any information given out during this survey exercise shall not be divulged to a third party and will be used as anonymized data for statistical purposes only”, he added.
