The National Bureau of Statistics wants to embark on a census of businesses in 2017. The institution aims to get a clearer picture of what the country’s business and industrial landscape looks like, and use the data collected to build a more comprehensive GDP estimate for the country.
The Statistician General of the Federation, Yemi Kale, disclosed the plan of the NBS in an interview with the Premium Times. He said that the goal of the exercise was to capture the small businesses and agricultural establishments left out in the rebasing exercise conducted in 2014.
Two years ago, Nigeria’s GDP had been recalculated to take into account components that had previously been left out. That process had led to the nation’s GDP for 2013 being jerked up 89%, to about $510 billion. However, Mr. Kale says he believes that the 2014 exercise left out up to 20% of the country’s domestic product.
“I don’t think Nigeria’s GDP is comprehensive enough”, he said. “We will conduct a formal sector study of small businesses, industries and agricultural farmlands, crops, fisheries, and their locations”.
The Statistician General suggested that there could be “some few trillions of naira here and there” which previous GDP figures had not captured.
The recession has taken its toll on productivity in the country. Nigeria’s GDP has contracted in recent times, and some analysts have reckoned that it has lost its place as Africa’s largest economy to South Africa. But Kale believes that the country’s economy is probably slightly larger than South Africa’s, if the output from the numerous small businesses that had not been included in previous estimates is added.