By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Statistician General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Prince Adeyemi Adeniran has described the media as critical partners in the data production process being undertaken by the Bureau.
Adeniran stated this in his remarks during the sensitization of the Media on the Nigerian Living Standards Survey 2022/23 and the Rebasing of Gross Domestic Product and Consumer Prices Index, which took place at NBS head office in Abuja on Thursday.
“As critical partners in the data production process, we want the media to become a strong voice and advocate of the work you see going on in the Bureau and within the Statistical System in the country. We want your reportage to be accurate, objective, and sound, to help build the confidence and trust of the public in what we do”, he said
The statistician general pointed out that the NBS considers engagements with the media as a necessary aspect of the data production process, stressing that “one of the United Nations fundamental principles of official statistics is Accountability and Transparency, and this is one of the ways by which NBS ensures that the processes are open and transparent
“By doing so, we promote and enhance the credibility of the system and build confidence in what we do in NBS. It is also another way of ensuring inclusivity, promoting collaboration, and engendering partnership throughout the process of these exercises, and the NBS’s wider data production.
“On our part, we will continue to remain objective, open, transparent, and professional in our work, as that is the only currency that we have as the national statistical agency for the country. Our door will ever remain open for clarity, input, and any other useful suggestions aimed at adding value to the work that we do”.
Explaining why Bureau embarked on the sensitization exercise, Prince Adeniran explained that the NLSS provides invaluable insights into household welfare, consumption, and expenditure, enabling us to measure the national poverty headline rate and other essential indicators, while the rebasing of GDP and CPI ensures that our economic data aligns with international best practices and captures the dynamic sectors and activities within our economy.
According to him, the NLSS is the survey under which the national poverty headline rate is generated, along with other useful household welfare, consumption, and expenditure indicators, noting that “this year-long survey is conducted every four to five years, with the penultimate round conducted in 2018/2019, and published in 2020, which produced a headline poverty rate of 40.1 percent”.
Additionally, he said the methodology for computing the estimates requires enumerators to visit selected households across the country to record their consumption and expenditure, through a 7-day recall process, pointing out that “This data collection is done for a year to enable the capture of seasonal variations in household consumption and expenditure. The information collected at the end of the 12 months is then aggregated and appropriately weighted to generate the total national consumption”.
He further emphasized that households whose total consumption of both food and non-food falls below a certain threshold are then adjudged to be poor and living under the poverty line.
On the other hand, he said that the CPI rebasing entails bringing the weight and price reference periods closer to the current period (Current Consumption Pattern), which is expected to be done every five years. The rebasing of Gross domestic product (GDP) is the process of replacing an old base year with a new/more recent base year which is known as the reference period to keep up with the evolution in prices.
“Economies as you know undergo structural changes over time (e.g., the growth of the tech sector, and the decline of traditional manufacturing). The rebasing exercise helps to account for these shifts, offering a more accurate snapshot of the economy’s composition”, he added..
During the sensitization exercise, key presentations titled “Nigeria Living Standards Survey”, Rebasing of Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) were delivered by top officials of the bureau.
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