The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) will tomorrow flag-off the fifth in the series of its Multiple Indicator Survey, MICS, targeted at assessing the situation of children and women in the areas of health, education, child protection and HIV/AIDS nationwide.
The MICS is a household based survey developed by UNICEF and can be used as data collection tool in monitoring progress of national goals and global commitments aimed at promoting the welfare of children, including Sustainable development goal (SDGs).
According to a statement issued by the Office of the Statistician General of the Federation, Dr Yemi Kale, on the exercise, the current MICS is the fifth of a series which started in 1995 and is extended to include questionnaire for individual men and modules such as water quality test, tobacco and alcohol use, life satisfaction, access to mass media and use of information communication technology.
The Bureau stated that the MICS remained unique in many ways. For instance, it is the first time Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) is being used to collect data on MICS just as it also enables National Immunization Coverage Survey (NICS) to be combined with it, thereby making it possible for the agency to carry out one National Survey at a time.
The objectives of the survey include, amongst others, to provide up-to-date information on the situation of children and women in the country; to strengthen national statistical capacity by focusing on data gathering, quality of survey information, statistical tracking and analysis; and to contribute to the improvement of national data and monitoring systems.
In addition, the exercise is designed to strengthen technical expertise in the design, implementation and analysis of such systems; to serve as baseline for Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, agenda; and to provide statistics to complement and assess the quality of data from recent national surveys such as Nigerian General Household Panel Survey (NGHPS) and National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) conducted by National Population Commission (NPC).
MICS 5, will cover all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and 960selected households will be interviewed in each state. The Bureau’s enumerators will be in the field from for 92 days to administer questionnaires on the selected households for the survey.
The NBS therefore appealed to the public to kindly volunteer the necessary information sought during this survey in view of the fact that such cooperation is pertinent to the success of the data.
Meanwhile, the Bureau has estimated that the exercise will gulp N1.2 billion. The Statistician General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale, who disclosed this at a media briefing yesterday in Abuja, said the project was being jointly funded by World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Agency for the Control of Aids, amongst others.
He said: “When the result is ready it will be used for monitoring and evaluation of such indicators like the Sustainable Development Goals. In the past it was used to used to monitor the MDGs. The old data will represent the baseline for the SDGs and then subsequently survey would be used to monitor progress.”
The Director, Real Sector and Household Department, Mr. Isiaka Olanrewaju, who represented the SG noted that this would be the first time Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) will be used to collect data on MICS.
The Chief, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Field Coordination, Mr. Denis Jobin, revealed that MICS 5 is the first time Survey will be conducted at the State level with Lagos and Kano, the two most populous states in the country serving as pilots.
According to him, it will help generate statistics at the senatorial level for Local Government Areas.
