The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) is undertaking a study tour at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as part of efforts to enhance its statistical capacity.
The Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, said the one-week tour is for knowledge sharing to advance initiatives in the African continent.
“The GBoS will learn a lot in terms of new ways of producing data, application of technology and innovation of data production.
“They will gain insight on how to apply international standards and best practices in data production.
“They have come to learn from us in Nigeria how we produce our National Agriculture Sample Census and the sample survey that followed it.
“They also want to learn how we are able to produce labour force statistics on a quarterly basis for many years without failing.
“As you recall, we revised our methodology of computing labour force and labour market statistics in recent times in conformity with ILO standards that all countries are using.
“As attestation to that, the GBoS is coming to learn how we were able to have changed to accommodate the new methodology and start producing data based on that.
“They want to see how they can go back and leverage on the kind of technology we use in NBS to help them produce data in their country.”
Earlier in his remarks, the Statistician-General of GBoS, Nyakaasi Sanyang, commended Adeniran for his commitment to the development of statistics in the region and encouraged him to keep up the momentum.
Sanyang said the tour would provide GBoS the opportunity to learn best practices, innovative methodologies and effective data production techniques from the NBS.
“We are here to learn something we do not know and it was not by accident. We made consultations with our development partners, the World Bank and they did the research for us.
“They found out that Nigeria is the best place for us to go and study how the Labour Force Survey and the Agricultural Census Survey is being conducted.
“So we need to go and learn the innovative ways of conducting agriculture census and quarterly labour force survey.
“Nigeria is a big country in Africa, therefore, its position is critical in moving statistics forward in Africa. If Nigeria is moving with the times, it will support other African countries.”
