NBS report shines light on key development indicators

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has release the results of its Living Standards Measurement Study and Integrated Surveys on Agriculture General Household Survey which it compiled in collaboration with the World Bank for the 2014/15 period.

The General Household Survey Panel is an insightful tool for understanding how agriculture may impact household welfare over time as it allows for a comprehensive analysis of how households add to their human and physical capital, how education affects earnings, and the role of government policies and programs on poverty.

The report which was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation shows that Nigeria is still grappling with the features of a developing nation.

Of particular interest are findings about key issues including education, health care, homeownership, internet communication technology usage, consumption, food security and response to shocks, income generating activities, labor and time use and agricultural practices.

Self-reported literacy levels (for reading and writing in any language) peaks at 78 percent for females between the ages of 15 and 19 and at 82.7 percent for males between 20 and 30 and most children enrolled in school attend a government school. The most common reasons cited for non-enrollment in school are lack of time and young age.

On the average, annual expenditure per primary school student is N11,510. Mean annual expenditure per secondary school student is N20, 420 which is close to 10 percent of annual household expenditure among households with children enrolled in secondary school.

Prevalence of illness for the 12 months preceding the survey was most common among individuals 65 year of age and over. This was the age cohort that also sought medical consultations or check-ups most frequently. While family planning and contraception use is not a common practice. When it does occur, it most frequently involves the use of condoms or outright abstinence.

In an era where governments across Nigeria are making huge investment in health care delivery, the survey found that at least 41 percent of boys and 38.7 percent of girls are born at home.

Nationally, 24.9 percent of boys and 23.8 percent of girls are reported as stunted, over 8 percent of boys and girls are reported as wasted, and 12.6 percent of boys and 10.9 percent of girls are underweight.

64  percent of households own their dwelling and 17.9  percent of households rent their homes. Although 63 percent of households have homes with 3 or more rooms, the quality of the building material remains poor. Nationally, more than 60 percent of households have electricity (an average of 35 hours per week), but there is a large disparity in access at the zonal level; 88 percent of urban households have electricity compared to only 40 percent of households in rural areas.

The survey also collected information on households’ access to information and communication technology (ICT) and patterns of usage. Nearly all households (89%) have access to a radio and cell phones are more common in urban areas (91.6%) than in rural (77.5%). Access to personal computers (14.3% vs. 4.3%) and internet (14.4% vs. 3%) is more prevalent in urban areas than in rural areas; however, access to all ICT tools has increased in both urban and rural areas as well as nationally, since wave.

Overall, vegetables along with grains and flours are the most consumed food items with 90 percent of households consuming food items in these groups. This is closely followed by oil and fat products (87.9%), and meat, fish and animal products (84.2%).

Fruits and dairy products continue to be reported as the least prevalent food consumed, while grains and flour are the most consumed food group, average expenditure is highest for meat, fish, and animal products.

House rent accounts for the highest national mean expenditure, with an annual mean value of N32,851. Similar to findings in Wave 1, reported food shortages from this wave are seasonal, with January and February posing the biggest risk of food insecurity. Twenty percent of households reported having to reduce the number of meals taken in the 12 months preceding the survey.

Urban households were more likely to have reduced their meal intake than rural households (22.8% vs. 17.5%). Major shocks negatively affecting households in order of importance as ranked by households, include: death or disability of a working household member, rains causing harvest failure, and food price increase. The most common coping mechanisms reported include receipt of assistance from family and friends (7.4%) and reduction in food consumption (5%).

The GHS-Panel is a nationally representative survey of 5,000 households which are also representative at the zonal (urban and rural) levels.

 

In the past decades, Nigeria has experienced substantial gaps in producing adequate and timely data to inform policy making. In particular, the country lags behind in producing sufficient and accurate statistics on agricultural production. The current set of household and farm surveys administered by the NBS covers a wide range of sectors but, with the exception of the Harmonized National Living Standard Survey (HNLSS) which covers multiple topics, these topics are usually covered in separate surveys.