CIVIL Society Organisation under the platform of the Integrity Advocacy for Development Initiative has urged the Nigerian Government to take data collation seriously to ease the process of development.
The group made the charge at the First Bi-annual Meeting of the National Consultative Committee on Statistics (NCCS) recently in Kano State.
Executive Director of the group, Comrade Ofomhi Christopher in his statement, said it has become imperative for governments at all levels to depend on properly and professionally collected, analyzed, and interpreted data as a guiding template for the design of economic policies geared at stimulating development and growth.
He thus urged the government to provide facilities of statistical operations across Ministries, Departments and Agencies to
guarantee better quality of statistical
products.
“It is a naked truth that proper data collection helps both government, and private institutions in many areas like; organizational and institutional development, infrastructural development, human resource management and development, statistical advocacy,
data production, information technology, and data dissemination.
“Across the globe, statistics have played an important role not only in understanding the magnitude of the global crisis but also in designing and implementing policies to
address it. Statistical offices around the world have also played very critical and strategic roles in educating the government and the
public, supporting the policymaking process, and developing new standards and methodologies for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of information,” he
noted.
The group then made recommendations for “the establishment of a NATIONAL STATISTICS TRUST FUND should be approved by the government for more sustainable funding of statistical activities in Nigeria:
“Increase in budgetary allocation and timely release of funds for statistical activities in MDAs and State Bureaus of Statistics.”
“Increased collaboration between the National Bureau of Statistics and CSOs in the areas of advocacy for statistical activities in the Nigerian Statistical System
“NBS ‘Call Center’ should be better funded for direct collection of data from the public through telephone and all state governments should adopt the same