From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja

Minister of Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, has lambasted critics of Nigeria’s economy, saying they should focus on the economic developments in other countries to appreciate the efforts of the government.

According to the minister, in Ghana, Ethiopia and Uganda, inflation was reported at 40.4 per cent, 31.1 per cent and 31 per cent respectively in the month of October 2022.

Represented by the Director, Social Development Department, Dr Faniran Fanjo, the minister made the remarks at the National Sensitisation Workshop for the Nigeria Living Standards Survey (NLSS) and the Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS), in Abuja.

He also said that the inflation figure recorded in the UK was at its highest rate of 11.1 per cent compared with the rate in 1981 which is 40 years after.

“With this high rate of inflation in these countries, it can be said that the negative effects of household consumption and poverty levels in those countries is high. This will tell us that Nigeria is progressive if you compare some of the statistics released by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) with other countries across the global.

“The gains made by this administration, especially in education, health and general welfare of the people under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari are being eroded due to global and local shocks caused by global pandemics, the Russian and Ukrainian crisis; security challenges, climate change effect with particular reference to flood and disasters in recent times.

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“Government policies have actually led to the improvement in some of the key indicators of socio- economic developments. It’s therefore important to disregard the negative opinions that government has thrown more people into poverty or has not made any effort to mitigate the global challenges.

My advice, therefore, is to focus more on the analysis of economic developments in other countries to appreciate the efforts of the government of Nigeria. For example, in Ghana, Ethiopia and Uganda, inflation was reported at 40.4 per cent, 31.1 per cent and 31 per cent respectively in the month of October 2022” he said.

Speaking on the National Sensitisation Workshop for the Nigeria Living Standards Survey (NLSS) and the Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS), the Statistician General of the Federation, Prince Semiu Adeyemi Adeniran explained that over the past year and a half, staff of the bureau have been engaged with colleagues from the World Bank in an extensive planning and preparation process, for both the NLSS and NLFS surveys.

“This planning process has adopted the use of modern platforms and methodologies for designing and implementing both surveys. While the NLSS exercise has largely maintained the same design as the previous round in 2018/2019, the NLFS has undergone more notable changes from previous rounds.

“The major change to this round of the NLSS is the use of newly-carved out digital enumeration area maps from the National Population Commission (NPC), for the selection of clusters and subsequent household listing. And the addition of new questions and modules on remittances, migration and absentee household members, migration aspiration, social cohesion, petrol subsidy, and subjective wellbeing to the NLSS survey questionnaire.

“The NLFS however, has recorded more significant changes from the way it was being implemented previously.
Aside the use of the digital enumeration area maps mentioned earlier, with a fresh quarterly listing of selected clusters to avoid attrition, this new approach involves data collection from a carefully selected sample of over 35,000 households, spread over a period of 12 months, instead of the large 33,000 sample surveyed every quarter. It also involved the use of a streamlined workforce and an enhanced quality assurance mechanism, enabled by technology, built into the process” he said.