The National Statistical System in Nigeria: Developments and issues

Abstract

This paper assesses improvements or otherwise and challenges in the various stages of developments in the Nigerian National Statistical System (NSS) and suggests ways through which the National Statistical System can work according to International Best Standards. Issues militating against the smooth functioning of the system as identified in this work include, but not limited to, non-professionalization of the Statistical system, politicization of data and appointments relating to Statistical system, non-existence of Statistical Institutes for training and development of staff and inadequate funding and manpower. Some of the measures that could improve the workability of the System are identified, among others to include collaboration among International and National Agencies, establishment of an effective Statistics Trust Fund (STF) and monitoring and the strengthening of professionalism in the system through the implementation of the Chartered Institute of Statisticians of Nigeria (CISON) laws.

Keywords

National Statistical System CISON Statistics Trust Fund Statistical Master Plan Statistics Act

1. Introduction

Governments and other users of statistics need data for planning, decision making and monitoring of social and economic growth and developments. Various types of data are used for these purposes, namely quantitative and qualitative data. These data in Nigeria are collected and collated in a co-ordinated operational system known as the National Statistical System (NSS), under the co-ordination of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Other producers of statistics, apart from NBS are the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of Governments (see [1]). According to [2], a National Statistical System is a system that has a coherent body of data. It consists of users, producers then suppliers of data and information. It aims to ensure continuous co-ordination and co-operation among producers and users of official statistics in order to advance standardization, quality, consistency, comparability and use of evidence as the basis for policy choices and decision making and avoid unnecessary and costly duplication. A National Statistical System (NSS) is a co-ordinating framework within which the required information for development in the form of indicators are generated. For the organization of the Nigerian National Statistical System, [1, 3, 4, 5] have extensively dwelt on it.

Official statistics therefore as defined by the United Nations Statistical Commission are an indispensable element in the information system of a democratic society, serving the Government, the economy and the public with data about the economic, demographic, social and environment situation (see [2]). It is the totality of statistics produced by public statistical agencies of a country. It also covers economic statistics including statistics of industrial production, services, prices and institutional sector, and social statistics encompassing population and demography, housing, education, employment, health, nutrition, income and expenditure, public order and safety, social security and welfare, leisure and cultural activities. These statistics are produced within the framework of the NSS.

A good statistical system therefore, produces reliable official statistics for proper evidence-based planning and implementation of policies and programmes of any country and Nigeria is never an exception.

According to [15], African National Statistical Systems have proven to be weak over the years. This is due to limited involvement on the part of all key stakeholders in statistical development – a situation that the Reference Regional Strategic Framework (RRSF) seeks to correct. They further said that to generate comprehensive quality statistics, the capacity of all key producers must be further developed, with coordination by the National Statistics Office (NSO). However, in order to undertake this coordination, the office should be empowered legally, financially, technically, and administratively.

The roles of statistics for national development have been duly evaluated by researchers like [6, 7, 3, 8, 16, 17].

There have been various contributions about the developments of the Nigerian Statistical System. [5, 9] have given detailed phases of historical developments of the National Statistical System in Nigeria. Espey [11] confirmed IMF assertion that if emerging market and developing countries (like Nigeria) invest in better quality data, they can reduce the cost of borrowing by an average of 20%. Also, [12] outlined poor quality of information, including lack of consistency, duplication and out-of-date information; no clear strategic direction for the overall statistical environment as some of the major challenges for managing information in a statistical environment. They further proffer solutions to these challenges to include strong leadership, delivering of tangible and visible benefits and recognizing complexity of the organisations among others. Sibrian [13] advocated the integration of food security information into the National Statistical System of any country, as this would help in the formulation of policies about food and nutritional status of populations.

For the Nigerian Statistical System (NSS) to produce a reliable, efficient and timely statistics there is the need to look at the various developmental stages in the National Statistical System, the impact and challenges of such developments on the system. This would now pose a task of making strides to tackle these challenges in a manner to further place the system in the front burner of improving economic growth and development of a country. This work therefore seeks to assess the various developmental stages of the Nigeria Statistical System and the impact of these stages on the system. It also looks at some militating factors against the system and how stakeholders can help to further improve on the functionality of the Statistical System, so as to align with international best practices and provide reliable and timely data for Nigeria’s economic growth and development.

2. Developments in the Nigeria National Statistical System (NSS)

2.1 Early stage of development

During the pre-1957 statistics act, a statistics unit was established in 1928 and was headed by a Government Statistician. The responsibility of the unit was only restricted to basic statistics that were of interest to the colonial administration. In 1947, statistical developments gathered some momentum and attracted Government interest which led to the establishment of a section of the Department of Customs and Excise as the full-fledged Department of Statistics. Then, in 1949, the department was re-organized into the National Statistics Office on a more permanent stand and government Statistician was appointed as the head. At this juncture, the nomenclature of the National Statistics Office (NSO) was seen to be a centralized system under a Unitary System of Government.

The federal system of Government created by the Richard Constitution in 1954 brought to bear a decentralized statistical system, in which all the three regions of the North, East and West had their zonal officers of statistics.

2.2 Second stage of development

The Statistics Act of 1957 that guided the conduct of statistical function and activities was passed into law. The Act outlined the functions of National Statistics Office to include;

Taking of population censuses.

Collecting, compiling and publishing statistical information relating to the commercial, industrial, agricultural, mining, social, economic and general activities and condition of the inhabitant of the federation.

Collaboration among department of the Government of the Federation, the Regions and with local authorities, in the selection, complication, analysis and publication of statistical records of administrations.

Organizing a co-ordinated scheme of social and economic statistics relating to the federation.

These provisions in the Statistical Act gave room for the collaboration and synergy among the component parts of the Nigeria Statistical System (NSO, CBN and Ministries) and allowed the establishment and operation of a common statistical service for statistical personnel in federal government service.

In independence year of 1960, the National Statistics Office (NSO) nomenclature and location was further changed. The NSO under the Nigeria Customs and Excise was transferred to the Federal Ministry of Finance and finally to federal Ministry of Economic Development. Its name was also changed to the Federal Office of Statistics (FOS). With the economy expanding and becoming more demanding, new institution and re-configuration of Nigeria Statistical System became imperative. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) took over the collection and production of financial statistics while the Natonal Population Commission (NPopC) was created to take care of human and population census though it was under the supervision of the FOS. As time went on, the function of the FOS and NPopC overlapped with each other. Due to this decentralization and overlapping of the functions by these three agencies – the CBN, FOS and NPopC, the strength and authority of FOS became weakened.

This development at the federal level spilled into the regional levels, as various regions had Statistical Ministries of Finance and Economic Development.

It would be recalled that the mandate to co-ordinate Nigeria Statistical System (NSS) and ensure its working was provided for in the Statistics Act of 1957. Therefore, both technical and administrative matters were controlled by FOS. All personnel belonged to FOS and were posted to Ministries as the need arose. With the creation of States and Local Councils, the growth of NSS became increasingly vast.

2.3 Third stage of development

This development stage was seen as the re- organisation stage. According to [5], this stage began in 1988. With the creation of states in 1989, 1993 and 1996 to 21, 30, 36 states respectively and the changes in the political configuration of Nigeria, the number of Statistical Agencies became increased.

Zakayo [4] also stated that the creation of the Department of Planning, Research and Statistics (DPRS) in all Ministries and Agencies of government through the Federal Civil Service decree 43 of 1988 further decentralized statistics. The decree made the former FOS officials to remain as career officers of the Agencies, which they were posted to by FOS at this period, data or statistics from the Local Government were collected and published by both the state and federal governments. Their statistical structure had not been properly formed. These data may not be the type that the local government requires for its own planning purpose. For this reason, the FOS started a programme called Local Government Information System (LGIS) in 1982 to collect data on the local government operations and physical infrastructure.

In 1989, the National Data Bank (NDB) and the Sectoral Data Banks (SDB) called Nigeria Information System (NIS) were established to further aid in re-positioning of the National Statistical System (NSS) of Nigeria. This made emphasis on electronic data management and dissemination using information technology in line with the global best practices and trends. Both NIS and NSS formed the National Statistical Information System (NSIS). In 1994 and 1997, UNDP in collaboration with National Planning Commission (NPC), FOS, NDB and other agencies at the federal, state and local government levels strengthened NSS in the area of generation and dissemination of statistical data and information.

2.4 Current stage of development

According to [5], the co-ordinating agency of NSS, FOS (now NBS) was at its lowest performance between 2002 and 2004 because of poor attention from government in terms of key appointments and budgetary allocations, bad management, bloated and low quality work force, preponderance of non-professional staff, archaic data production and management technologies, poor salary structure and conditions of service as well as low morale and productivity of workers. In view of this, the Central Bank Governor at that time deemed the poor policy formulations and implementation due to inadequate and scanty statistics in Nigeria and therefore agitated for a re-organisation of NSS through a Statistical Master Plan. Against this backdrop, the first re-organisation of the National Statistical System (NSS) in 2004 was the merging of FOS with National Data Bank (NDB), which led to the establishment of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Still in 2004, a Statistical Master Plan (SMP) was developed. The broad objective of this positioning of the NBS is to implement the Statistical Master Plan (SMP) and transform the Bureau along the dictates of the Federal Government Public service Reform programme (PSRP), (see [5]).

Some of the developments in this phase can be discussed under the following headings.

2.4.1 The Statistical Master Plan (SMP)

The first step of the development and repositioning of the NSS in line with the global trends was the development of the Statistical Master Plan (SMP) in 2004. Under this plan, a lot of issues that can improve on the function and responsibilities of NBS and the entire NSS were suggested. These issues included the repeat of the 1957 Statistics Acts to accommodate contemporary administration and hauling of the National Statistical System, the consolidation and formation of the strong and viable co-ordinating Agency, the National Bureau of Statistics for proper co-ordination, collaboration, networking and information sharing, the Statistical Master Plan (SMP) recommended to be included in the proposed Statistics Act the formation, constitution and function of the Board of Directors of the Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the National Consultative Committee on Statistics (NCCS). The board of Directors was to represent a wide range of stakeholders including data producers, data users in government, private sector, civil society and research and training institution. The Board was proposed to primarily set policies for more effective co-ordination of the NSS. On the other hand, the NCCS was proposed to implement Board policies and board guidelines on co-ordinaton, collaboration, networking and information sharing. On the whole, the SMP recommended a set of operational framework on the NSS development, organization, human resources management and administrative and technical matter.

2.4.2 The 2007 Statistics Act

According to [14], the recommendation of the repeal of the 1957 Statistics Act in the Statistical Master Plan (SMP) led to the sending of the Statistics Bill by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to the National Assembly in 2005. The new statistics bill was passed into law and accented to by the President in 2007. The provisions of the Act include among others the following:

The establishment of a National Statistical System.

The composition of the NSS to include four main elements:

The producers of statistics, including the NBS as the co-ordinating agency of the system, line Ministries, Public agencies, State Statistical Agencies and Local Government Statistical Units;

Data users, including key users such as policy and decision makers;

Data suppliers, including establishments and households;

Research and training institutions including higher education institutions. It further stipulated the objectives of the system to include:

to raise public awareness about the importance and role of statistical information to the society;

to collect, process, analyse and disseminate quality statistical data;

to promote the use of best practice and international standards in statistical production, management and dissemination;

to promote the use of statistical data and information at individual, institutional, local government area, state, National and International levels, especially for evidence-based policy design and decision-making;

to build sustainable capacity for the production and use of statistical data and information in the country for planning purpose and co-ordination of the National Statistical System.

Establishment and Composition of the Governing Board of the NBS (Section 8). The 2007 Statistics Act stipulated the composition of the Board to include:

The Chairman to be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Minister for National Planning Commission, subject to confirmation by the Senate;

The Minister of Finance or his representative;

Minister for Agriculture or his representative;

Minister of Education or his representative;

The Chief Executive Officer of National Planning Commission or his representative;

The Governor of Central Bank or his representative;

The Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation or his representative;

The President, Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria or his representative;

The President, Nigeria Statistical Association;

Five members to be appointed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to reflect the federal character and subject to the approval and confirmation by the Senate;

The Statistician General of the NBS.

In addition, any person shall be eligible to be appointed as a member of the Board, if the person has the requisite qualification and minimum of 10 years’ cognate experience in Statistics, Management and Public Administration, Information Technology, Economics or related fields. The Board has functions that propel or drive, motivate, energize and oversee the Nigerian National Statistical System. Therefore, the formation of the Board has a very important role to play in the improvement of our Statistical System.

The Statistics Act has provided enabling laws for the proper functioning and administration of the National Statistical System. [4] noted that the Statistics Act established the NBS, NSS, Governing Board of NBS, but no structure to handle the NSS; the NBS was formed with the mandate to manage NSS, but is itself NSS.

2.4.3 The National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS)

The major feature of the Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics (MAPS) is the need for African Countries to mainstream strategic planning in their Statistical System, especially through the implementation of National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS).

In Nigeria, the NSDS was a five-year plan spanning 2009/2010 to 2013/2014 (see [10]). It was to provide mechanisms for a holistic reform of the National Statistical System (NSS) and ensure an integrated unified data production system in the country. The Strategy was developed as a framework for strengthening statistical capacity across the entire National Statistical System for result-oriented management. The NBS is the co-ordinating Agency for the development of this Strategy for the entire country with the active support of Development Partners especially the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the UNDP. The particular objectives of the NSDS were to:

Improve co-ordination and promote understanding among and between data producers and users;

Strengthen national capacity to produce, manage and disseminate statistics through an integrated National Statistical System (NSS);

Ensure long sustainability of the NSS by securing funding for priority data production, management and dissemination;

Strengthen the country’s capacity to produce quality statistics based on international best practices to support national development initiatives, especially the implementation of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), and the Vision 2020 at the Federal level and the State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (SEEDS) at the State levels.

2.5 Recent statistical developments

The following recent developments have been experienced in the Nigerian National Statistical System:

Rebasing: It is a well-known fact that the base year for a country should be updated every five years, but Nigeria has not rebased since 1990. The reform and restructuring of the National Statistical System has made it possible to rebase which usually incorporates data for a new benchmark year. For instance, GDP was rebased in 2014 as a result of this reform in the Statistical System.

Improvement in the generation of data. The various producers of data have currently been generating various data promptly. Other agencies are collaborating with NBS to undertake issue and sector-specific surveys. For example, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Major Statistical Results: The major producers of statistics such as NBS and CBN have been able to produce major statistical data such as monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI), Inflation Rates, GDP (monthly and quarterly), Unemployment rates (monthly and quarterly), Gender Statistics, Consumption pattern, Rainfall data, Labour statistics and many other statistical outputs. Moreover, these data have all been uploaded in their websites for users’ access.

Transformation of NBS into a Statistical Office that is capable of meeting the data requirements of its users and which has enabled it to undertake some landmark policy initiatives in this regard.

Establishment of the National Data Centre in Abuja and six zonal Data processing centres in the country.

A re-organisation of the NBS to provide a robust organization that reflects its professionalization.

Establishment of States Bureau of Statistics in 18 States of the Federation with Statistician Generals appointed and with enactment and passage of the State Statistics Edict. These States include Abia, Anambra, Cross River, Enugu, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto and Zamfara.

The use of a more robust and sophisticated Information and Communications Technology in all stages of data production from data capture to dissemination.

A major methodology review for Labour, Poverty and macro-economic indicators. It was part of this process that culminated in the rebasing of GDP estimates.

Improvement in the use of various statistical data. There has been a considerable and remarkable use of statistical data for evidence-based policy making. [10] noted that there has been an increase in the statistical data by data users. They showed that from 2005 to 2012, there was a drastic increase in the demand for statistical data, (see also [9]).

Infrastructural development: Olubusoye et al. [10], observed that NBS has been provided with infrastructural facilities to aid in its proper functioning. They noted also the magnificent NBS headquarters at Abuja, the installation of Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) and other internet facilities in its offices. Its offices are also equipped with ICT infrastructures and the design and installation of Virtual Private Network (VPN) between NBS, 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT). On the whole, this has been an improvement in the provision of Infrastructure in the co-ordinating Agency of the Nigerian National Statistical System for it to generate reliable data in line with national and international best practices.

3. Issues

In spite of the various stages of developments in the Nigerian Statistical System discussed in this work, there are still many challenges and factors militating against this system. Some of these issues are considered and discussed in this section.

Lack of encouragement of professionalization of the National Statistical System. [9, 10] have showcased categories of staff in the co-ordinating Agency of NSS, the NBS, and observed that as at 2003, the Bureau had 231 professionals, 1583 sub-professionals and 2657 other staff. From this figures, it can be seen that the ratio of professionals to non-professionals is quite worrisome, as this would adversely affect the workability of the Statistical System. Even though there may have been an improvement on the number of professional staff and other staff, the NBS is still under staff in terms of professional staff. The professionals here include Economists, Statisticians, Social Scientists and ICT experts, while the sub-professionals are ND and HND holders. In fact the 2007 Statistics Act (Section 8) discourages professionalism by providing that membership of the Board of NBS could come from ‘related fields’ of disciplines not trained in data collection, organization and analysis (Statistics) and no clause for such individuals to be certified by a recognized Statistical Institute. This is necessary because the Board is entitled to make policies that drives the functioning of NSS and without a good knowledge of data generation and use, one cannot make policies and generate structures for reliable data production. In other agencies, like Accounting, Engineering, Medical and Law, no membership of such board is open for any uncertified person; it is either such person is an expert in the field or he must have passed through trainings and passed examinations from recognized certified professional Institutes operated by recognized professional bodies. These professional bodies include Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) and COREN for Engineering, Institute for Chatered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) for Accounting, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) for Medical profession and Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for Law profession. These bodies become necessary because they oversee and maintain, among other things, the ethics of the profession, operations of the functions of the agency in line with national and international best practices and ensure professionalism in their practices. Since these structures are lacking in the major co-ordinating agencies of the NSS, the proper functioning of the NSS becomes undermined, amidst existing laws.

Inadequate Funding: Inadequate funding has threatened the proper workings of the National Statistical System (NSS) in Nigeria. The establishment of Statistics Trust Fund enshrined or incorporated in the NSDS is yet to be fully swung into action. Besides, Government’s funding alone cannot take care of the needs of NBS to fully and properly run our National Statistical System (NSS), in order to meet international standards. Though, the World Bank has played a vital role in funding most surveys and other data generation activities in the country and some donor agencies, such as Dangote and Melina Gates Foundations have also sponsored few health surveys in Nigeria, it is not quite enough to really position the NSS on the same page with other nation’s NSS. Corporate Organisations (like MTN, ETISALAT, NBL, etc.), individuals and other companies are rather tilting towards only sponsoring entertainments like Big Brother Nigeria, Maltina Dance Competitions, Talents show, ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ and many others with huge amount of prizes for winners; but they are not interested in investing in data generation and collection, which would help in putting our economy on a good pedestal, which is confirmed by the submission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as noted by [11], that good data can lower the cost of borrowing money in a country by 20%. If the Statistics Trust Fund (STF) is established and there are private sectors’, international agencies’ and individuals’ collaborations in funding our NSS, then there would be enough funding to generate and organize the much needed data for evidence-based policy formulations in this country.

Awareness: The importance of using data to make policies that would enhance economic growth and developments has been played down in Nigeria. Any event capable of creating awareness on the need to imbibe the culture of using facts and figures for evidence-based policy making has not always attracted support from Government and other organisations. For instance, the African Statistics Day and the World Statistics Day that are celebrated on 18 ${}^{\text{th}}$ November of every year and 20 ${}^{\text{th}}$ November every five years have not been properly organized to achieve the purpose for which they were meant for; which amongst other purposes, was to create awareness on the usefulness of data in any country’s economic growth and development. Low media coverage, inadequate funding, lack of interests by Government and private organisations and low participation always characterize these events. Had there been adequate funding and full participation of these events just as the Centenary and Democracy day celebrations, Anniversaries of States’ Creations, Cultural day celebrations and many more, then everybody in Nigeria would have understood the need to provide and use reliable data for planning and execution of programmes and projects in the country. In summary, Nigerians do not appreciate record keeping, facts and figures for planning and implementation of programmes and projects, because they are not properly informed.

Politicization of data and appointments: For a Statistical System to be robust and dependable, data gathered and disseminated by it must be reliable. That is to say that data (estimates) must be accurate and precise for effective evidence-based planning towards economic growth and development. Many data (information) produced have always been politicized in Nigeria. This is due to the Nigerians’ perceptions and attitudes to data. As a result, most figures or responses given during a survey could be inflated to satisfy a section’s political aspirations. Also, some appointments made into the various offices of the agencies saddled with the responsibilities of generation of these reliable statistical data are mostly politicized. These positions are sometimes used to compensate political supporters and sympathizers, without taking into cognizance professional and critical nature of the work to be undertaken by these appointees. These appointments are also made to protect political and ethnic sentiments since some of the statistics are used in allocation of resources and appointments across the Federal Agencies. This aspect of the challenge in the national statistical system has been noted in the works of [11] that many National Statistical Offices (NSOs) lack sufficient capacity and funding and remain vulnerable to political and interest group influence (including donors).

Stern position against being a data-oriented society: Nigeria is not regarded as an information-oriented society. There is no strong belief in data (evidence) in Nigeria. This brings about low rate of responses from respondents in any Survey, low turnouts at events, where data are needed to be generated. It has always been resisting results from investigations. Little wonder any person can react to any issue against or for Nigeria, concerning figures or data, without recourse to appropriate agencies.

Inconsistencies on Data productions and updates: Most data to be utilized by various users of statistics for planning, research and development are not always promptly produced and uploaded in the websites of the major producers of statistics – CBN and NBS websites. For example, the monthly All Share Index data are uploaded in the website of NBS up to 2016 with no data for 2017. Also, data for external and domestic debts of Nigeria are uploaded in the CBN websites up to 2014 and no data from 2015 to 2017. This delay in the production and updating of data by these major producers sometimes hinder good planning, research and implementation for better economic reforms.

Inadequate Manpower and Manpower Training: Provision and development of Manpower to ensure sustainability and capacity to produce, handle and manage data for effective and integrated National Statistical System (NSS) is lacking or inadequate. Facilities, Infrastructures, system’s structures have been reformed and improved; but not much is done in the area of manpower development. In these agencies, staff are not trained on how to collect, organize and analyse data as well as write reports on the produced data. Staffs in the producing units of data need to be frequently trained to be able to run the improved Statistical System.

Duplication of functions by Statistical agencies: Some statistical agencies have the same functions and as such produce the same but differing data on the same item. For instance, the Federal Road Safety Commission and the Police produce data on Accidents; the data produced by the two agencies on the same item may differ in values and contents. This becomes a very big challenge to both the producers and users of these data.

4. Measures to improve the Nigerian National Statistical System

In the light of the above issues militating against the effectiveness of the NSS, the following way forward is hereby proposed.

Professionalism should be strengthened by Government through amendment of the 2007 Statistics Act and assenting to the CISON Bill that was passed into law by the 7th National Assembly. This CISON should also be empowered to create a Statistical Institute capable of training non-professionals to become professionals and to also train professionals to improve on their performances.

Government, corporate organisations and individuals, private sectors and other stakeholders should show interests in events, programmes and projects involving awareness in data production and utilization in Nigeria, as this will change the orientation of Nigerians towards the need for data production and utilization.

The establishment of an effective Statistics Trust Fund (STF) that would stand the test of time is imperative. Government, Individuals, corporate organisations and private sectors should be able to harness resources to contribute to the Trust fund for the purpose of funding generation, organization and analysis of reliable data.

There should be an effective manpower training and development plan for proper production and handling of data according to international standards.

Surveys by relevant agencies should be harmonized through an integrated co-ordination by NBS so as to produce efficient and reliable data.

Appropriate Statistical Laws should be enforced on data generation and utilization.

Statistical agencies should collaborate with National and International organisations or agencies in the area of capacity building, data collection, funding, innovations in technology and other logistics (see [18]).

Data quality should be protected by strengthening and improving the NBS and ensuring that it is functionally autonomous, independent of sector Ministries and political influence (see [11]).

5. Conclusion

The various stages of developments in the National Statistical System (NSS) have been appraised and these developments have recorded significant achievements in the Statistical system of Nigeria. Amidst these significant improvements, it has still been discovered that a lot needs to be injected into the Statistical System to catapult it to a level that can compete with the Statistical Systems of other developing and developed countries. Issues militating against the smooth functioning of the system as identified in this work include, but not limited to, non-professionalization of the Statistical system, politicization of data and appointments relating to Statistical system, non-existence of Statistical Institutes for training and development of staff, inadequate funding and manpower, duplication of functions by Statistical agencies, inconsistencies in data production and many others. Measures are also proffered to help improve further the country’s Statistical System and these measures include among others collaboration of the Statistical agencies with other national and international organisations, establishment of an effective Statistics Trust Fund (STF), effective manpower training plan, creation of awareness on the need to produce and use data for evidence-based planning and monitoring and the strengthening of professionalism in the system through the implementation of CISON law and amendment of some sections of the 2007 Statistics Act.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to express their appreciation to the reviewers and the editorial board of the Statistical Journal of the IAOS for their contributions towards the acceptance of the manuscript.

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