This view was expressed by the Statistician General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Yemi Kale on Thursday during the stakeholders’ sensitisation workshop on national census of commercial and industrial businesses, held in Asaba Delta state.
He said Nigeria had not been able to conduct census for commercial and industrial business in the last 32 years beginning from 1988/1989, stressing that it was necessary because it would enable the country have an “up to date comprehensive list of all establishments in the country.”
He further explained that the move would help in determining “the structure of enterprises in Nigeria by sectors and the spread across the States and all the 774 LGAs,” adding that the census would classify businesses in the country into micro, small, medium and large establishments.
Kale explained that the NBS would partner with the World Bank to achieve a successful census, adding that it would, “deploy the use of modern Information Communication Technology (ICT) at every stage of the conduct of the Census.”
He added that, “this is critical especially as the information to be generated will be used for the monitoring and evaluation of the current Government’s economic blueprint, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and as well as the rebasing of the nation’s economy.”
According to Kale, the census would tell how many business enterprises are available in each state of the Federation, adding that the census would also reveal the strength, location and capacity utilization of these businesses
He urged key stakeholders to cooperate by “providing accurate information, which would help to provide data to support policy formulation and informed decision,” he added.
