Nigeria unveils data dissemination system on statistics

LAGOS – Nigeria on Tuesday launched the Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS) to boost a sound statistical system in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

With this development, Nigeria had become the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to satisfy the e-GDDS requirements and subsequent launch in real time, Yemi Kale, Nigeria’s statistician general, said at the launch in Abuja, the country’s capital city.

Nigeria was required to provide key macroeconomic statistical information into the system, the official said, noting that the key macroeconomic statistical information covered 15 data categories along with their respective metadata.

These include national accounts, consumer price index, general government operations, central government gross debt, depository corporation survey and Central Bank Survey, Kale said.

The aim of e-GDDS was to serve as one-stop-shop for essential macroeconomic and financial data within the context of the system, the statistician general said.

Kale said Nigeria was ahead of other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to launch the system that would make availability of data easier for users.

This demonstrates the extent to which the National Statistical System (NSS) has evolved with respect to the production and dissemination of accurate and reliable data, he added.

The IMF launched the data standards initiatives in the 1990s with the aim of enhancing member countries’ data transparency and promoting development of sound systems.

This informed IMF to establish the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) in 1996 to provide guidance to countries that had or sought access to capital markets to disseminate key data to users in general.

Under these initiatives, IMF introduced the General Data Dissemination System to provide a framework for countries willing to develop their statistical systems to work toward disseminating comprehensive and reliable data.

– Nampa-Xinhua