REPORTER: EMEFIENA OKONKWO
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF and the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, have called on the Enugu state government to take ownership of the data collection of the ongoing, Multi Indicator Cluster Survey, MICS7 collation in Enugu state for a successful survey.
In a joint advocacy visit to the Enugu state Governor, the Statistician-General of the Federation/CEO, National Bureau of Statistics,Prince Adeyemi Adeniran and the Planning, Monitoring and Reporting -Chief, UNICEF, Nigeria Country
Office, Mr Wayne Bacale commended the Enugu state government for its commitment to data driven governance.
They equally called on Enugu State Government to ensure that it’s Ministries,Departments and Agencies, MDAs, participate effectively in MICS7 survey and collation, while seeking sustained collaboration among the federal, state government and UNICEF.
Prince Adeniran, said ” we are here in Enugu state on advocacy visit to his Excellency Governor Peter Mbah to intimate him on the progress of work we have achieved in the ongoing Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey round 7, MICS7.
“We are happy that within a short notice, the Governor was able to assembly key government functionaries to receive our team and we also have informed the commissioners about this ongoing national survey.”
The NBS boss pointed out that Enugu state was not the only state where the Data collection is taking place as the exercise is also taking place in all the 36 states of the federation and Abuja,
“we have enumerators selected from various MDAs of the state and they are working with our staff in Enugu to collect this data, so at the end of the day we want Enugu state government to know that this Data is collected from people of the Enugu.
“The data will help in planning and policy formulation for the welfare of the citizens of the state”.
For his part, the UNICEF Representative, Mr Bacale, said that UNICEF has been a strong ally and a strong partner to the NBS since the first MICS.
He explained that UNICEF for 35 years, has really been close partner with the NBS because of the belief that NBS has a strong capacity in the conduct of multi Indicator Cluster Survey.
“In fact, I’m happy to share that the MICS data of Nigeria is the most downloaded information in MICs in the whole world.”
Responding, the Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Nathaniel Urama,who represented Governor Peter Mbah expressed deep appreciation to the National Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF, for carrying out the MICS7 project and chosing Enugu State for the courtesy visit.
He said that Governor Mbah was committed to increasing the GDP of the state and ensuring that the poverty rate is reduced to zero.
He noted that to a large extent that these were largely being achieved through accurate data.
Dr Urama however appealed that Enugu state should be involved in all the stages of the data collection to ensure the accurate results that reflects true information about the State.
