NAN-HE-12
Index
By Cecilia ologunagba
Lagos, Sept. 7, 2017 (NAN) A statistician, Dr Olusanya Olubusoye, has urged the Federal Government to incorporate Human Development Index (HDI) in measuring the improvement of Nigeria’s economic progress.
Olubusoye gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the 3-day International Statistical Conference in Lagos while reacting to the GDP figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for the second quarter of 2017.
The figures released showed that Nigeria had moved out of economic recession.
Cue in audio 1 (Olubusoye)
“We over rely on GDP. Countries are no longer relying solely on GDP.
“There are other measures that have been developed to measure economic progress. Human Development Index (HDI) is one of them.
“Several countries including Australia have on their own come up with measures that are unique to them.
“They have collections of indicators which they have devised to measure their progress over time.’’
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According to Olubusoye, who is the 2nd Vice President, Nigerian Statistical Association (NSA), GDP is an aggregate measure of economic activities in a country.
“Gone are the days, when countries rely solely on GDP as a measure of economic progress.
“For instance, if a country only engages in the production of alcohol, GDP can continue to increase so it is all about economic activities.
“At the global level, several initiatives and adjustments to GDP have been developed.
“For instance, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) developed the HDI to benchmark countries based on combined measurements of GDP per capital, health and education,’’ he said.
The statistician said that several countries had also taken initiatives to measure development and progress in a new and comprehensive way.
He urged the Federal Government to emulate Australia by developing its own mechanism for measuring the country’s economic growth development and progress.
“Measure of Australia’s Progress (MAP) is a project that identified the most important things for national progress and produced indicators that captured the spirit and aspirations for societal progress.’’
He urged the Federal Government to ensure that the issues measured would be relevant to the country’s progress and would also determine whether standard of living in Nigeria was improving.
Cue in audio 2 (Olubusoye)
“In the economic domain – we can even break it further – we look at standard of living. There are indicators for measuring standard of living i.e whether quality of life is improving.
“Unemployment issues are not just about unemployment. We need to know how many jobs are created, not just the unemployment rate.
“Government should be more concerned about how many jobs are created on monthly basis, then we can super impose that on the number of jobless people.
“When you know the number of jobless people and you know the number of jobs being created, then we will know whether we are gradually engaging idle hands.’’
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He further urged the Federal Government to also incorporate the volume of productivity and international trade as part of indicators for measuring economic progress.
The official identified corruption, participation in governance, human rights and responsibilities, trust in governance, health, housing, education and safety indicators as some other areas in need of consideration for measuring the country’s economic growth and development. (NAN)
CIA/HAS/YEE
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Edited Hajia Sani/Emmanuel Yashim