We Need Statistics – Nigeria Needs a Digital Presence

Where do you go to find information on Nigeria whether online, or offline?

Government agencies? I think not, then where?

The truth is as far as statistics and information is concerned in Nigeria, there is hardly any concrete source dependable enough to reckon with. I’ve googled these questions and here are my answers.

Question: What is the population of people in Nigeria?

Answer: 154,728,890, source world bank, dated 2009, whereas that of the US came from the US Census Bureau. The Nigerian population Commission web site still holds the record of 2006.

Question: How many Secondary schools do we have in Nigeria?

Answer: First result for England turned a specific value of 3,127 with a link to a source that had a stamp of authenticity from the English government. What we have is a sponsored listing maintained by NigeriaGallaria.com, which is simply just a list of schools that they know. Wikipedia however had a more comprehensive listing, sorted alphabetically in name and grouped according to state.

Question: How many students do we have in the Nigeria, secondary and tertiary.

Answer: No result for Nigeria.

Question: What is the exact amount earned by a Nigerian Senator?

Answer: $174,000 for US senator based on specific and publicly available calculations at www.opm.gov, but only the usual rumors for Nigeria, no document available to back any up.

Question: How many registered companies do we have in Nigeria, grouped under specific categories like IT, banking, etc?

Answer: All answers for this are just private web listings on various websites, with limited categorization and no statistics, the Corporate Affairs commission of Nigeria has a website that was last updated in 2006, so I didn’t even bother checking what they had.

What’s the point?

We have poor statistics in Nigeria, the government is poor at it, and individuals are no better, but I believe they are critical to progress and development. The question however, what is the solution?