The Minister of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, Barrister Hannatu Musa Musawa has sought the collaboration of the National Bureau of Statistics in providing high quality government owned data to assist in the transformation of the country’s creative landscape.

The Minister made this known on Thursday, when the Statistician General Prince Adeyemi Adeniran and top management staff of the NBS paid her a courtesy visit in Abuja.

Musawa said that she sought the expertise of NBS following the absence of data for the sub-sectors under the mandate of the Ministry.

"Data is very essential as the ministry continues to build policies that will attract surplus to the GDP. I realized that prior to this administration, the creative industry was regrettably unaccounted for within the National statistics. The absence of systematic tracking of creative players and their contributions to our national GDP became glaring. With the establishment of the Ministry of Art, Culture, and the Creative Economy and targets clearly articulated in the Medium-Term National Development Plan (2021 – 2025), we find ourselves at a juncture where a collaboration with the National Bureau is integral to ensure the successful design and implementation of high- quality, government-owned data which aligns with ethical standards and best practices. This data is not merely a necessity. It is the bedrock upon which we will build the future of our creative ecosystem and establish a solid creative economy."

- Honorable Minister Of Art Culture and the Creative Economy

Musawa noted that accurate data on the Ministry will propel policies and interventions for fostering the growth of the creative sector and contribute substantially to national development.

"Your expertise is invaluable and together, we can lay the foundation for a comprehensive, accurate, and government-owned dataset that will articulate our commitment to excellence. Collaboratively, we envision building mechanisms that will track and actively contribute to the development of the Nigerian creative space."

- Honorable Minister Of Art Culture and the Creative Economy

In his response, the Statistician General Prince Adeyemi Adeniran commended the Minister for inviting the National Bureau of Statistics to assess and generate a comprehensive data analysis on the creative contributors to the Gross domestic product (GDP) of the nation.

Prince Adeniran stated that the mandate of the NBS is to generate socio economic data on daily basis, starting from policy and decision making.

NBS will look into the database to see what can be released to the ministry on activities of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy sector of the country.

"We will provide the ministry with the baseline, and where there are gaps in line with the Ministry’s key performance indicators KPI, the NBS will look at the gaps and discuss it with the Ministry’s representatives. Once the ministry has its baseline compiled and validated, then it is good to go. Subsequently, as the ministry is programming its activities, it will just be collecting this data to measure the progress at any period of time"

- The Statistician General .

In her closing remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Dr Ngozi Onwudiwe commended the Hon Minister for the giant step taken in seeking data for the ministry.

"Data is absolutely important because no MDA can plan without data and if you cannot plan you cannot perform. Mr. President understands all these effects and that is why he set mandates and KPIs in the ministries. Some of the KPIs have a numerical value on which they can be scored and without data and statistics, this cannot be achieved"

- Dr Onwudiwe

 A steering committee to be headed by the Hon Minister and the Permanent Secretary was set up comprising technocrats from the NBS and the Ministry to start the process of data collection and analysis of the Art and Culture sector.

NNEKA IKEM ANIBEZE

SA Media & Publicity