The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics has stated that the agency is plagued by insecurity in the country during the process of data collection with its members getting kidnapped and attacked.
NBS Director of Real Sector and Household Statistics Department, Mr. Adeyemi Adeniran, who represented the Statistician-General of the Federation, Mr Yemi Kale, said this on Thursday in Abuja at a media briefing.
The briefing was organised by Office of the Statistician-General of the Federation and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria to signal the commencement of the 2021 National Survey of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Adeniran said the survey would commence on Monday with a train-the-trainers workshop, while fieldwork would start on August 21, adding that the survey, which had been successfully carried out in 2010, 2013, and 2017, would be carried out in the 36 states and the FCT.
He added that in the fourth round, the concept of Nano enterprises – enterprises that have only one or two persons engaged in their operations – would be introduced.
Adeniran further disclosed that the NBS was facing a number of challenges while conducting data collection across the country, highlighting the issue of insecurity alongside kidnapping of and attacks on staff.
“One critical challenge that we cannot run away from in whatever activities we are doing is the issue of insecurity. A lot of our staff face the challenge of insecurity in some of the states.
