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Participants at the survey design workshop for the seventh round of MICS and National Immunisation Coverage Survey (NICS) on Tuesday, in Lagos. |
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has revealed plans to unveil the results of the seventh round of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS7) in 2026.
This was disclosed by the Statistician General of the
Federation/ Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of Statistics, Prince
Adeyemi Adeniran, while declaring open the survey design workshop for the seventh
round of MICS and National Immunisation Coverage Survey (NICS) in Lagos, on Tuesday.
The Statistician-General said MICS/NICS is one of the
surveys that organisations, governments, and policymakers use to decide how to
formulate programs and projects as well as
monitor those projects just as he noted that Nigerian MICS has always
been the best, not just in Africa but also globally because it is the largest, most downloaded
and of the highest quality.
“Our main target with this survey is to meet the aspirations
of the government and people of Nigeria. That's why we want to ensure that the survey is designed in a way that meets government expectations to be able to use the
results to measure the performance and
progress made in it is areas of priority. In addition, we want to obtain the data required to assess our
country's progress in the area of Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) and the Renewed Hope Agenda of this present administration,” he
stressed.
Adeniran described the workshop as the pre-stage of the survey; adding that, it brings together critical stakeholders. These include partners from Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of Government, representatives of state governments through the Assistant General of the State Bureau of Statistics, Civil Society organisations that are working in the area of women, children, adolescents, and men, and the academia to brainstorm on the best way to design and implement the MICS7/NICS in terms of the development of an appropriate region. The goal is to meet all the aspirations of the Nigerian government and Nigerians at large, as well as determine the sample size that will be robust enough to give quality estimates, the Statician-General said.
“Stakeholders are here to design the questionnaire for the
survey tools that we are going to be using in interviewing the respondents
across the country.
"It is also a workshop where we are going to determine
the number of households and areas, we are going to be visiting such that we
will be able to cover the nooks and crannies of the country and also have
enough samples that will represent the responses or information from the entire
country,” he added.
UNICEF’s Chief of Planning and Monitoring, Wayne Bacale described UNICEF as a very significant partner of NBS.
“Our purpose is to provide assistance, introduce best practices, and connect global specialists. Because of this, a representative from the regional office is here as one of our regional experts.
" Thus, we want to ensure that NBS has all the necessary resources as well as cutting-edge ideas and trends. This is the journey for the next two years. We are bringing in professionals from across the globe to train participants in Nigeria, ensuring that we have the necessary financial and technical know-how,” he added.
In her remarks, Stephanie Kauv, UNICEF Monitoring
Specialist, West and Central Africa explained that the goal of the
collaboration between NBS and UNICEF is to guarantee the survey’s success.
“We are putting a lot of effort into making this survey more
reliable. To make sure that the data we collect are representative, we have
formed a national steering group and technical committee comprised of
professionals from the government, UNICEF, and academia.
"In addition, we are deploying innovative ways of
collecting data and estimations. For the first time, we will be collecting data
at the Local Government level for the entire country.”
