The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Education Manager, Mr. Jutaro Sakamioto, has said that one out of four children in Nigeria is out of school, and 75 per cent of Nigerian children have not developed functional learning skills, which are critical building blocks for advanced knowledge and skills.

Speaking at the 2024 African Statistics Day celebration in Abuja, Sakamioto said that education is one of the most important investments by any government.

He noted that education not only empowers children and youth with the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in the labour market and society but also drives economic and social development in the country.

The theme of the event was “Supporting Education by Modernising Production of Fit-for-Purpose Statistics.”

Sakamioto noted that countries with educated and productive citizens enjoy spillover effects such as increased tax revenue, decreased crime rates, and improved democracy with active citizenship.

He said, “This is the reason why so many countries in the world put education as the top national priority. The potential of education investment is particularly high in Nigeria, where the child population is increasing at a rapid pace.”

Sakamioto, however, pointed out that Nigeria is grappling with significant education challenges due to its large number of out-of-school children and poor learning outcomes.

“According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, a nationwide household survey implemented by the National Bureau of Statistics with UNICEF’s support, one in four children are out of school, and 75 per cent of children do not develop foundational learning skills that are critical building blocks to develop advanced knowledge and skills,” he said.

He explained that the challenges are due to various bottlenecks, including supply-side and demand-side factors. However, he identified the lack of data as one of the most critical cross-cutting barriers.

Sakamioto pledged that UNICEF, alongside other development partners, will continue to support the government in transforming data governance and ecosystems in the education sector.

In his speech at the event, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, urged Nigerians to free themselves from what he referred to as “data imperialism.”

He lamented the country’s reliance on other nations for its data, noting that some countries have unmerited advantages in data generation and presentation.

The minister encouraged Nigeria and Africa to use their own data to tell their stories.

Bagudu said, “Today, the market power of Amazon or Google determines what I buy. When COVID unfortunately struck the world, we saw data companies showing data about the movement of people.

“And it just shows that, in a way—sorry to use this word—maybe data imperialism is still very active in the sense that some companies or some countries have an undue advantage when it comes to data generation and the way that data is presented.

“So I understand that we also need to recognise this and to compensate for it so that we are also using data in a way that we are telling our story.”

He added that one story he would like to hear is an objective determination of how much investment a country of 230 million people needs to ensure a good life for everyone. “I believe there is. We can’t find it,” he said.

The minister said that all data generated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) are independent of government influence and are reliable enough to avoid miscommunication.

The Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, recalled that Friday last week marked the conclusion of the first Annual Conference of the newly established Chartered Institute of Statisticians of Nigeria (CISON), which had a similar theme: “Mainstreaming Innovative Statistical Approaches to Understanding and Solving Nigeria’s Economic Challenges.”

He stated that the conference demonstrated that the NBS is increasingly aware of the systemic challenges facing the country and is prepared to take the necessary steps to address them.

According to Adeniran, data shows that entities that innovate experience, on average, a 30 per cent growth in value compared to those that do not and outperform them by 11 per cent in total revenue annually.

He noted that the NBS has adopted the mantra of innovation to remain relevant in meeting the demands of its mandate.

“This is in line with the Data Innovation Lab (DIL) initiative of the African Development Bank and the Roadmap for the Transformation and Modernization of Official Statistics in Africa being championed by the African Centre for Statistics,” he said. “Accordingly, we have set up a Data Innovation Desk within the Bureau to advance, monitor, and track all data innovation initiatives across our production and dissemination processes.”

Adeniran explained that this can be seen in all aspects of the Bureau’s work, including the data it produces, the methodologies it adopts, and the way it plans its surveys.

“All of these are in a bid to ensure that we provide the right data, which is a critical tool for development, to all our users in a timely manner and in a way that is useful and suited to their needs,” he said.