World Bank, others partner Nigeria on GDP rebasing
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| Dr. Yemi kale, Statistician General of the Federation |
Worried that much of Nigeria’s fiscal planning and economic policies at the Federal, states and local governments levels have been consistently hinged on an obsolete Gross Domestic Product (GDP) baseline carried out since 1990, the World Bank, International Monetary Funds (IMF), the Africa Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, among others development partners are to help the country in generating a current and accurate GDP figure.
Statistician -General of the Federation (SGF), Dr. Yemi Kale, gave this indication Monday at a sensitisation workshop on Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), where he also hinted that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) planned to generate a base-year estimates which is to help in filling gaps on data needed for future estimates.
Kale said that the current price and quantity structure used to compile and measure Nigeria’s GDP, will be replaced through a rebasing exercise which he said will help Nigeria plan and measure development better.
“The process of replacing the present price and quantity structure of the base year used to compile real measures of GDP with a new or more recent price structure is known as re-basing. It involves changing the price and quantity base for individual process and quantity relatives, updating weights used in aggregating individual quantity relatives into sub-indexes and aggregating these sub-indexes into more aggregated indexes.
“We are trying to update the current farm price and quantity structures used in the calculation of our GDP estimates to come out with more up-to-date figures,” he said.
He noted that continued reliance on the 1990 generated GDP figures will not help the Federal Government in effectively tackling development targets set by it, especially the Vision 20:2020 transformation agenda which hoped to place Nigeria among countries of the world with the most vibrant economies.
Minister/Deputy Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Dr Shamsudeen Usman, described the intended rebasing exercise as essentially statistical in nature but called on stakeholders to ensure that the processes leading to outcome of the rebasing are transparent and open to members of the public. He maintained that the processes leading to arrival of a new GDP are as important as the outcome itself.
“It is critical to mention that the nation’s GDP estimates are as accurate as possible, adequately capturing historical changes and development over time, appropriately depicting the present realities and sufficient. While it is clearly statistical that some might say should have been done without fanfare its importance necessitates that all relevant public and private sector stakeholders are brought on board”, the minister said.
IMF Senior Resident Representative, W. Scott Rogers, in his remark, said that the process of rebasing was complex and time consuming, adding that the exercise required carefulness and expertise.
He also cautioned that care must be taken to focus on credibility of the process leading to the rebasing rather than outcome of it.
- The Guardian
