The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said the new Nigeria Living Standard Survey (NLSS), which is about to kick off, will identify really poor Nigerians and help the government plan how to lift them from the doldrums.
The Chief Executive Officer of NBS and Statistician-General of the Federation, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran said this on Monday during the flag-off of the Training of Enumerators (ToE) for the Nigeria Living Standard Survey (NLSS) 2022/2023 in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
He explained the bureau will employ new and improved data collection methodologies to ensure the data it releases at the end of the survey is reliable and meets global standards.
Adeniran also stated that the new living standard data that will be released after the survey will help the federal government plan how to lift poor Nigerians out of poverty.
“This is a survey we will use to compute the poverty index and the poverty rate in Nigeria. The last round of this survey was conducted in 2018/2019 and the results were released in 2020. The survey gave us the poverty number we are using in the country now.
“Before now, we usually had logistics and funding problems, which made us wait up to 10 years or more before conducting a new round. But with the support of the government and the World Bank, we are able to kick start another round of the NLSS within a period of five years, which is the standard all over the world,” Adeniran said.
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He explained further that “this survey will give the government the number of people below the poverty line so that it can determine the measures and policies to come up with to reduce the number and avert a further increase.
“The federal government has made the pledge to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030. This is one survey that would be able to measure how many people are below the line.”
Five enumerators were chosen from each state of the federation and Abuja for the survey, Adeniran said, noting that “what is unique in this survey is that we have added some modules that are of importance to Nigeria’s present situation. We have a module that collects data on fuel subsidies so that we can have the perception of Nigerians on fuel subsidies and their impacts on them. We have another module that collects data on remittances. As we all know, remittance has become an important topic all over the world.”
