From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
In a bid to get accurate data on people currently living below the poverty line in Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the World Bank have started training 185 enumerators that would collect data that will be used to complete the poverty index in the country for the 2022-2023 Nigeria Living Standard Survey (NLSS).
The Statistician-General of the Federation/Chief Executive Officer, NBS, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, made the disclosure on Monday when he declared open the training of enumerators (ToE)for the NLSS, held at Ibadan Business School, Old Bodija, Ibadan, which will end on November 21.
Daily Sun gathered that the survey that was conducted in Nigeria and released in 2020 during the heat of COVID-19 put the poverty rate in the country at 40.1 per cent, saying over a 83million Nigerians were living below the national poverty line.
According to Adeniran, “The last round of this survey was conducted in 2017 and 2018. The result of that survey was released during the COVID-19 in 2020. That survey gave us the poverty number that we are using in the country now, which is 40.1 per cent.
“We are commencing another round after five years. Before, we used to have logistics and funding problems, which used to take us up to three years or more before we conduct another round. But for the support of the government, and the World Bank, we’re able to kick-start another round of the Nigerian Living Standard Survey within a period of five years, which is the standard all over the world and that is why we are here.”
Adeniran, who stated that five enumerators were selected for the training on merit from each state of the federated, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, said: “We have two ways by which we measure poverty in the National Bureau of Statistics and Nigeria. One of them is through what is called Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index Survey. This approach measures the deprivation that people suffer, in terms of health, education, household assets and others.
“But this measurement from the Nigerian Living Standard Survey, is a measure of poverty in terms of consumption by the households, in terms of monitoring measurements, that is the amount available to households to get what they need to survive as human beings. So, this survey at the end of the day is going to give the government the number of people below the poverty in the country so that the government can be able to determine what measures or policies they can come up with to attack and alert on the increased number of people living below poverty in the country.
“The Federal Government has the pledge to take 100million Nigerians out of poverty by the year 2030. So, it is with this survey that the government will be able to measure how many people they have been able to take out of poverty through various programmes that they are implementing to avert this. This is one key deliverable that this data will give to the government and other users across the world.”
The leader of a three-person World Bank team to the programme, Kevin McGee, who spoke about the quality of the 2017-2018 survey, promised the continued support of the World Bank for the success of the project.
the Living Standards Survey generally measures the living conditions of the population of any country. It also provides essential information for the production of a wide range of socioeconomic and demographic indicators, including benchmarking and monitoring Sustainable Development Goals, monitoring progress in the population’s welfare and measuring the impact of various government policies on households. In preparation for the conduct of this round of the NLSS, and as part of measures to ensure data quality, two levels of training were planned. The first level, which is the Training of trainers was already concluded in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, while the second level of training, for the enumerators, is why we are all gathered here at the Ibadan Business School today. This training is crucial to fully equip participants with the knowledge of the project to enable them to collect the required data at the commencement of fieldwork. This training will ensure enumerators are familiar with the key aspects of the survey and how it is conducted, be aware of common issues that may arise during survey activities, the problem-solving strategies to address these issues; recognise the fundamental value of good-quality data and be motivated to ensure data quality as part of their activities. In addition, this training will equip you with a clear understanding of the survey protocols, survey instruments and the key roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the survey, including specific tasks and timelines.
The Project Director, NBS, Mr IZ Maigida, explained that the survey “generally measures living conditions of the population of any country. It also provides essential information for the production of a wide range of socio-economic and demographic indicators, including for benchmarking and monitoring of Sustainable Development Goals, monitoring progress in population’s welfare and measuring the impact of various government policies on households.”