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Going local! NBS to begin collection of its own Nigeria poverty data

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Going local! NBS to begin collection of its own Nigeria poverty data

The Statistician General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) would soon commence the Nigeria Living Standard Survey (NLSS) to determine Nigeria’s poverty level.

He said the statistics bureau have completed plans through relevant partnership to conduct the survey.

Kale, who made this known on Thursday at a one-day stakeholder’s sensitisation workshop on NLSS in Keffi, Nasarawa State, said the exercise would kick off on September 27.

“Work is going to start next week; for us to be sensitising the public, it basically means that we are ready to go. All the background work and all the plenary exercise have been done and we are informing people so they can ask their questions and help us sensitise the public.

“From next week, trained field officers will be deployed to selected households in enumerated areas across the country over the next 12 months. They will collect information on consumption, expenditure, assets and general living conditions,” Kale said.

Recall that a recent report by Brookings had rated Nigeria over India as the new global extreme poverty capital of the world.

The report cited data from the World Poverty Clock, a web platform designed to provide real-time poverty estimates of all the countries in the world to monitor progress against ending extreme poverty in the world by 2030.

On June 29, Kale, in a series of tweets via his official Twitter handle, @sgyemikale, had said the methodology adopted by the World Poverty Clock was a forecast that cannot serve as a substitute to the household surveys, which he described as the appropriate methodology for poverty computation.

The NBS boss noted that the survey would be carried out using electronic means of data collection, urging the public to provide accurate information to ensure production of indicators that reflect the true living condition of households in the country.

“Like all NBS household-based surveys, this round of NLSS, will for the first time be carried out using electronic means of data collection. Field staff, trainers and monitors have been undergoing rigorous and extensive training in preparation for the data collection.

“The purpose of all these quality assurance measures and methodological improvements is to ensure that we collect the best possible information from the field, and in turn generate good living standard estimates for the country,” he said.

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According to Kale, the NLSS exercise would enable NBS derive statistically sound indicators for measuring poverty and inequality in the country.

“The subject of poverty is very critical to a developing country like Nigeria, most, if not all of government effort is geared towards ensuring that citizens are able to attain a decent standard of living.

“We will be failing in our mandate if we are not providing the public, government and policymakers with useful and reliable statistics to deploy in designing and implementing poverty-alleviating interventions and programs across the country.

“It is for this reason that we have been working with the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office and the World Bank to carry out this exercise.’’ he said.

 

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