NBS Boss says ‘Nigeria will rebase GDP in 2021’
Dr Yemi Kale, Statistician-General of the Federation/CEO Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that Nigeria would rebase its GDP in the latter part of 2021.
Kale disclosed this at the media conference on the significance of the on-going National Survey of Establishment (NSE) on Thursday in Abuja.
He revealed that after the GDP is rebased, the NSE would include information on 17 economic activities which would have more data on the present economic realities in the country.
“It would also provide useful information for policymakers on the activities driving the Nigerian economy and those that require government intervention and serve as a benchmark for subsequent commercial and industrial sector statistics.
“In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic when many businesses and commercial activities have been impacted severely, a survey such as this, with the information to emanate, is extremely invaluable to designing and planning for the post-COVID-19 long term growth and development of the private sector in Nigeria,” Kale said.
Kale added that another major factor for the re-basing is the National Agriculture Sample Census, to be held later this year, citing that the NBS enumerated over 1.4 million business establishments in the National Business Sample Census (NBSC) 2020/21 which commenced in October 2020.
“The first component is the listing or enumeration of business and commercial establishments across the country, while the second part is the sample survey, which is currently going on.
“The data retrieved from the businesses during the listing exercise were the establishment’s contact details, nature of the business and ownership structure, number of employees, and GPS location.
“The sample survey which commenced with the training of field personnel two weeks ago, essentially, takes a sample of the enumerated business establishments under the listing exercise,” he added.
The last time Nigeria rebased its GDP was in 2014 which made the economy surpass South Africa’s as the largest in Africa. Kale said at the time, the economy expanded to an estimated N80 trillion ($488 billion) for 2013.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in real terms declined by -3.62% (year-on-year) in Q3 2020, thereby marking a full-blown recession and second consecutive contraction from -6.10% recorded in the previous quarter (Q2 2020).
Suzan O/Bloomberg/Nairametric
