Dr Yemi Kale, Statistician- General of the Federation has assured students studying statistics in tertiary institutions that they will not suffer lack of employment after their graduation.
Kale gave the assurance when some statistics students in tertiary institutions paid a visit to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) headquarters in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the visit was part of the second edition of statistics competition which began on May 12 and would end May 17.
The event was organised by the Nigerian Statistical Association (NSA) for undergraduate students in Nigeria.
Kale, represented by Mr Femi Adeniran, Head of Household Statistics Division, said the students were lucky to be pursuing a career in statistics.
“You are wondering why I am saying this, I have series of examples that I can give you, you may not know you are lucky but in the nearest future, you will remember my words and be happy.
“Statistics is one of the courses that when you do it, you can get jobs anywhere, you are not restricted.
“Any company you go, you will see statistics department there, all the big companies, all the lucrative areas that you may think of working in Nigeria, they have to manage statistics.
“Talk about Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), there is department of statistics there, in NNPC and Customs too, we are working with them on a daily basis.’’
Kale added that all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the country have Planning, Research and Statistics (PRS) department and they all required professionals like them.
The statistician–general also assured the students that establishments and State Statistical Agencies would require their services too.
He, however, told the students that NBS had been producing data for the government and entire publics in the country.
“ The bureau also collaborates with other local and international agencies to ensure that there is publicity in the use of statistics.
“Data is very important for economic development. Without data, you cannot plan well and you cannot implement programmes without accurate data.
“We are glad to have you, we will take you through some of the processes we use in producing data,’’ Kale said.
According to him, the NBS is happy about the topic chosen for the competition which is inferential statistics.
He said he was happy about it because it was one of the key functions being carried out by NBS.
“Inferential statistics is one of the two main branches of statistics, others being descriptive statistics.
“Inferential statistics uses random sample of data taken from a population to describe and make inferences about population.
“With our mandate, we take a sample from the population to generate data which can be used to estimate for the entire population and that is what we mean by inferential statistics.’’
Also speaking, Mr Sunday Ichedi, Head, Public Affairs and International Relations, NBS told the students about importance of data, vision and mission of the bureau.
Ichedi said the implementation of the Statistical Master Plan (2005-2009) had repositioned the bureau in terms of improved human resources physical infrastructure.
NAN reports that the objective of the competition was to rekindle the dwindling interest of students in statistics.
The competition is also to encourage them to take statistics as a future career and improve their communication and knowledge in some difficult areas of the course.
No fewer than 42 students from 21 institutions across the country participated in the competition. (NAN)
