The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the country slipped into recession in 2016 because the government failed to pay attention to data released by the Bureau, indicating that the economy was heading the wrong way. The Statistician General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale stated this on Thursday while speaking at the 2017 African Statistics Day held in Abuja.
He lamented that though the NBS was proactive enough to detect recession indices, the government failed to act by ignoring the warning of the Bureau.
“Prior to our entry into recession in the 3rd quarter of 2015, careful monitoring and application of the data would have shown that the economy was heading in the wrong track but this was largely ignored, and the result was a very difficult recession, which affected the lives of households and their businesses across the country.”
Director, Field Services and Methodology Department of NBS, Mr. Babayo Samanja who represented Kale at the event called on Nigerians to be cautious now that the country is out of recession. He specifically urged the government not to ignore data released by NBS.
“As a nation, these economic statistics are so critical in not just assessing the macroeconomic performance of our economy, but also in unlocking those hidden opportunities within our economy that need to be fully exploited and harnessed, in order to transform the lives of our citizens,” he said.
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