The Statistician General of the National Bureau of Statistics, Yemi Kale, on Tuesday said that one of the major challenges constraining the effectiveness of the statistical bureau was poor funding by the Federal Government.

He said that while the Federal Government had continued to slightly upscale the budgetary allocations to the NBS, annually, the funding was grossly inadequate and far below the amount designated to statistical bodies in other African countries.

Kale spoke during the commencement of the data collection for the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey and the National Immunisation Coverage Survey, organised in conjunction with the National Primary Health Care Development agency and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

He said, “The importance of data remains. It is exceeding important especially for a developing country. A lot of developed countries who have functional systems in place, they spend so much on statistics. Then there is no excuse for a developing country with high aspiration not to take statistics seriously.”

He added that while making stakeholders agreed on need for funding of its activities, the required funds were not forthcoming.