Data gaps in Nigeria have continued to impact on the country’s development and growth prospects. Across sectors, poor data collection and management have robbed the country of the benefits of its enormous resources. Literature suggests that data inadequacy in Nigeria have impacted on labour economics, health care, economic planning, disaster management, and human development in general. Lack of data has also denied Nigeria the benefits of a growing population.
Due to the inadequacy of data, planning is often based on projection and speculation. For instance, Nigeria’s population data, which is probably the country’s most essential data, is still predicated on projections from the 2006 population census which is even fraught with controversy. Other important data that are missing in Nigeria include health data, business data, employment and so on.
In Nigeria’s health sector, absence of data has impacted on the quality of care and overall health care delivery. Data on health indices, disease prevalence, mortality and morbidity, medical history, financial needs, and national preparedness and response are still missing. Some of these data gaps have reflected in Nigeria’s response to COVID-19 pandemic. These data gaps together with other gaps in Nigeria’s healthcare system have worsened Nigeria’s battle with COVID-19.
To businesses, lack of data has been connected to business failure and business losses. For instance, Chizaram Ucheaga, the Chief Executive of The Intelligence Company noted that lack of a centrally collated commodity price system increase production cost for businesses. Lack of data also affects investment decisions. According to Dr Doyin Salami, a lecturer at Lagos Business School, gap unavailability has continued to affect investment into real estate in Nigeria.
Nigeria’s policy process has been sorely impacted by lack of data. Data inadequacy has limited evidence-based planning which in turn have reduced the impacts of government’s policy and planning. For some government interventions, the needs assessment is not carried out due to lack of data. Consequently, interventions fail to satisfy true needs and, in some cases, are not sufficient in meeting needs.
In addition, data gaps deprive the government of revenue. Government is persistently deprived of tax revenues due to lack of data. For instance, according to a PWC report in 2016, only 13 percent of Nigeria’s labour force paid taxes in 2016. This is just one source of leakage in government revenue, perhaps due to lack of data. `
Lack of business data and data on immigration are other sources of leakage in government revenue. Insecurity has also been worsened by data inadequacy. Lack of citizen data also impacts on social investment initiatives and other interventions targeted at the poor. Nigeria’s lack of good and systematic database affected the distribution of COVID-19 lockdown palliatives.
Beyond these, Nigeria’s unmet data needs to increase difficulty in tracking the utilization of public funds and government spending. For example, Udo Ilo, the country director for the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, noted that due to data challenges, there have been difficulties in tracking government spending on COVID-19. Udo revealed this in a panel session with DATAPHYTE on Friday, 26th June this year. On a general note, data inadequacy has limited Nigeria’s growth.
But Nigeria’s data challenge is somewhat multi-dimensional. A data challenge bothers on timeliness and availability of data which is commonly connected to underinvestment in research. Lack of understanding of the benefits of data-based planning also limits the prioritization of data and analytics for businesses in Nigeria. Another challenge is data accuracy and reliability.
Poor data sourcing methods and deliberate statistical manipulation reduce data accuracy and reliability. For example, the recent gunmen attack of the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja appears to be a deliberate attempt to undermine COVID-19 response measures. Invariably, this attack may count as suppression of statistical truth on COVID-19 pandemic and may compromise the reliability of COVID-19 data in Kogi State.
However, appreciable progress has been made to promote data availability and reliability in Nigeria. In addition to the effort of the National Bureau of Statistics and other government data agencies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) such as DATAPHYTE and BudgIT have been working extensively to promote accessibility, reliability, and usability of data in Nigeria.
Despite the efforts of these CSOs, the government should be at the central point of data collation, processing, and publishing. According to Udo Ilo, CSO intervention on Nigeria’s data gaps should complement and not replace government’s effort. Thus, there is a need to pressure the government on the need to improve its data process as well as on data-based planning.
Nevertheless, Ilo emphasized the need for collaborative efforts in Nigeria’s data process. Noting the inefficiency of planning without data, he stated that individuals and organizations should improve data collection and storage. Data accuracy should be prioritized across board and more resources should be committed to improving the capacity of organizations and government agencies. This will improve the collection, management, storage, and utilization of data in the country.