The Statistician General of the Federation/CEO, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Prince Semiu Adeyemi Adeniran, has charged staff and management of the bureau to brace up for the challenges of providing adequate and reliable data needed to fashion out development programmes essential to improve the welfare of citizens.
He made the charge while addressing participants at the meeting of the National Consultative Committee of Statistics (NCCS), in Lagos Wednesday. The theme of the meeting was “the direct implication of sectorial statistics in curbing inflation”
Prince Adeniran noted the spate of global inflation and its attendant consequences in managing scarce resources by both government and individual households
According to Prince Adeniran, “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.
“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 if we simply look.
“In the UK, several workers unions are embarking on a series of industrial strikes over this Christmas periods due to pay and wage disputes with their government. At the heart of these disputes and disagreements is the menacing impact of inflation on their salaries package, which has eroded their real wages in the last couple of years, some by as much as 10 percent.
“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. 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.”
He stressed that as the new year is fast at hand, their role as a professional and independent assessor of socio-economic conditions in the country would become more and more pronounced.
“We can no longer hide away behind our computers and laptops in our respective offices, wishing for a quiet life. Our skills and output are and will be increasingly sort after, as individuals, businesses and government seek to understand issues around them and make informed decisions.
“So, 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.
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