It also said that rebasing the economy became necessary to ensure that the economic data it releases align with international best practices and capture the dynamic sectors and activities within the economy.
The Statistician General of the Federation, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran who disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday, said the last time the economy was rebased was in 2010 which is 14 years ago.
He said the Bureau is also rebasing consumer price index (CPI) to a reference period of 2023 as against the current base period of 2009.
He said rebasing entails bringing the weight and price reference period closer to the current period.
“When we say current period, we mean we want to be able to accurately collect data that reflects the current consumption pattern of households in the country, which is expected to be done every five years,” he said.
“That is the standard. That’s the best practice. From henceforth, the rebasing is to be carried out every five years so that we can compare the data that we collect from markets every month with a recent period that we call base year.”
He explained that rebasing of gross domestic product is the process of replacing an old base year with a new one, a recent one, that is known as the reference period to keep up with the evolution in prices. “Economies, as you know, undergo structural changes over time. It’s not static. It’s always dynamic,” he said.
He said it improves the accuracy of growth measurements, supports better policymaking, and enhances the credibility of economic data, both domestically and internationally.
The Statistician General also informed that the Bureau is in the process of finalising work on the Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS), 2022/2023 to replace the old one conducted in 2018/2019.
He explained that the NLSS provides invaluable insights into household welfare, consumption pattern, and expenditure, which helps to measure the national poverty headline rates and other essential indicators relating to welfare of the households.
“For information and clarity, the NLSS is the survey under which the national poverty headline rate is generated, along with other useful household welfare, consumption, and expenditure indicators,” he said.
“This one-year-long survey is conducted every four to five years, with the penultimate one conducted in 2018-2019, and it was published in 2020, and remember, it was released during the COVID lockdown period, which produced headline poverty rates of 40.1 per cent and about 82 million Nigerians under poverty at that time.”
He said the Bureau will continue to interface with the media and other stakeholders to ensure people understand the workings of the bureau.
“We want to ensure that the data we release are fully understood and utilized to enhance public knowledge, inform policy, and improve overall economic performance in Nigeria,” he said, adding, “In so doing, the output of the process will reflect an accurate picture of living conditions and the state of the economy in Nigeria, enhance the understanding of emerging sectors and economic activities, and satisfy the needs of all users of the data.”
He said the NBS does not tilt the result of its surveys to favour anyone, not even the government which needs an accurate data for proper planning.