Orelope-Adefulire: Nigeria is first in Africa to align national statistical system with SDGs

Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, senior special assistant to the president on sustainable development goals (SDGs), says Nigeria has become the first in Africa to align SDGs with its national statistical system. 

She said this in Abuja on Tuesday, during the ‘launch of the baseline report and realignment of the national statistical system with SDGs, 2020’.

Orelope-Adefulire said the federal government hopes to create an enabling environment for the continuous production of the required statistics for tracking and monitoring the implementation of SDGs in Nigeria. 

“With this launch, Nigeria is now the first country in Africa to have successfully aligned its national statistical system with the requirements and indicators of the SDGs,” she said.

“We are all aware of the daunting responsibilities and challenges being faced in the task of statistical production of data across all MDAs.  

“It is for this reason that as a government at the centre, we are creating the enabling environment necessary for the continuous production of the required statistics for tracking and monitoring the implementation of SDGs in Nigeria. 

“This has become necessary given the fact that planning and policy formulation can only be effective when statistics is promoted as a tool for evidence-based policymaking.”

She said the SDGs aim to ensure people “enjoy peace and security” by 2030, therefore they need to be  integrated into national policies.

She added that the achievement of the SDGs is a basis for effective economic governance and would promote the welfare of Nigeria, adding that it needs to be inclusive so “no one is left behind”.

“As the SDGs are interrelated and interconnected, we have since recognized that the SDGs cannot be achieved with standalone policies and programmes. They must be carefully and scientifically integrated into our national and sub-national medium and long-term development policies and plans,” she said.

“In effect, achieving the SDGs serves as the basis for effective economic governance to promote the welfare of a nation. In particular, the attainment of the ambitious 2030 Agenda for sustainable development promises a better quality of life for all is to be owned, especially in Nigeria where poverty remains a source of great concern. To achieve this, however, the implementation of SDGs in Nigeria will need to be all-inclusive, in a ‘whole-of-society’ approach so that ‘No one is left behind’.”

She appreciated the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for providing the needed support that enabled the launch of the report.

She also asked other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to do the same in order to “put in place a system for sustained, quality and reliable data production at all levels of Government in Nigeria”.

“The Report we are launching today therefore is a product of series of efforts spearheaded by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), to which I must commend for the initiatives in laying the platform for the production of statistics that are capable of providing the needed support for tracking, monitoring and reporting the progress in achieving the SDGs in Nigeria,” she added.