Lagos To Provide Adequate Statistical Infrastructure

Lagos State governor, Akinwumi Ambode, has pledged to provide adequate statistical infrastructure and funding to ensure timely and reliable data in the state.
Ambode made the pledge at the  opening of three-day maiden edition of a International Statistical Conference, organised by the Nigerian Statistical Association (NSA) on Wednesday in Lagos.
Ambode was represented by his Special Adviser on Education, Mr Obafela Bank-Olemoh.
The governor said the administration was determined to provide funding to ensure that reliable, acceptable and right statistics were provided in good quality and timely.
He said the administration was also determined to support statistical infrastructure, to provide quality data to help take appropriate actions that would give dividends of democracy, through good governance, to the people.
“We will also encourage effective dialogue between you as experts, the policy makers and researcher as key users of statistics,’’ the governor said.
Ambode said the state was aware of the problem of data explosion or data revolution in its statistical system.
“As the structure of government is expanding, the amount of data we need to gather and process to govern our complex economic, social and environmental system is daunting and enormous.
“The demand for data about the state from development partners at household level, firms/industry, various organs of government have continued to expand.
“These are areas, I feel your conference will help to provide workable solutions to.
“The volume, variety and speed of data required to monitor and evaluate social-economic activities in this century is huge,’’ he said.
The governor, however, expressed optimism that the outcome of the conference would help the state to redefine strategies for improving statistical data production, usage and dissemination.
Also, Acting Head of Data Technology Section, African Centre for Statistics, Mr. Molla Asmare  UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Ethiopia told the participants about the projects of the commission.
Asmare said ECA had been implementing a project on the use of mobile devices for data collection in 11 countries in Africa.