Afrigather Atiku Bagudu, minister of Finances and Nationwide Planning, has known as for the pressing modernization of Nigeria’s statistical programs to higher assist training and drive sustainable financial progress.
Bagudu in his handle on the 2024 African Statistics Day, themed “Supporting Schooling by Modernizing the Manufacturing of Individuals-Centered Statistics,” emphasised the crucial function of correct, match for objective information in shaping insurance policies that handle Nigeria and Africa’s most urgent challenges.
He famous that solely by modernizing these programs can Nigeria and the broader African continent unlock the potential of their youth and guarantee long-term prosperity.
The African Statistics Day celebrated yearly on November 18th to lift consciousness concerning the significance of statistics in growth and to advertise the usage of information for higher decision-making in Africa.
Based on the Minister, this 12 months’s theme aligns with the African Union’s 2024 theme, “Educate and Scale Africa for the twenty first Century.”
He identified that in a quickly evolving world, strong and dependable information programs are important for constructing instructional frameworks that equip Africa’s youth with the abilities wanted to thrive within the world financial system.
“Schooling isn’t just a human proper; it’s the basis for sustainable growth,” he remarked, stressing that for Africa to achieve the twenty first century, its instructional programs have to be data-driven and adaptable to the challenges posed by technological developments.
He acknowledged that, in right now’s digital age, training programs throughout Africa face evolving challenges, from useful resource constraints to an rising demand for abilities that align with rising industries.
“With out trendy, match for objective statistics, creating insurance policies that handle the tutorial wants of our younger inhabitants turns into more and more troublesome”
He urged that Nigeria use its information to inform its personal tales, noting that information imperialism, the place just a few corporations management information, shapes our selections, and emphasised the necessity to use information to find out how a lot funding a rustic of 230 million wants for a very good high quality of life.
Adeyemi Adeniran, the statistician basic of the Federation, in his remarks, emphasised the significance of modernizing information assortment strategies to deal with present challenges, notably in training.
He famous that conventional statistical strategies are not ample and that revolutionary approaches are obligatory to offer related, well timed, and dependable information. He highlighted current developments, together with Nigeria’s inclusion of early childhood growth information within the A number of Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) and collaboration with the World Financial institution to enhance training statistics utilizing know-how.
“Conventional strategies and statistics can not minimize it; extra revolutionary approaches and data are required to sort out the challenges in right now’s world.
“We should innovate, adapt, and alter if we’re to stay related in offering policymakers and all customers with well timed, related, and dependable information.”
He stated the NBS was centered on utilizing revolutionary statistical approaches to deal with Nigeria’s financial challenges, highlighting that NBS has adopted a mantra of innovation, establishing a Information Innovation Desk to reinforce information manufacturing, assortment, and dissemination consistent with the African Improvement Financial institution’s Information Innovation Lab initiative.
Jutaro Sakamioto, UNICEF training supervisor in his goodwill message famous that training is a key funding for financial and social growth, offering kids with the abilities wanted to succeed and contributing to a productive, energetic society. He famous that international locations with educated populations profit from larger tax income, decrease crime charges, and stronger democracies.
Sakamioto highlighted Nigeria’s training challenges, together with a excessive variety of out-of-school kids and poor studying outcomes, with 1 in 4 kids out of college and 75% missing primary studying abilities. He identified that obstacles akin to an absence of information hinder progress and pledged UNICEF’s continued assist to the Nigerian authorities in enhancing training information programs.
