NEPZA Partners NBS to Track Contribution of FTZs to Economy
The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have entered into partnership to share import and export-related data in the country.
The deal will also aid decisionmaking as well as properly measure the contribution of the Free Trade Zone Scheme to national economy.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive, NEPZA, Prof. Adesoji Adesugba and the Statistician General/Chief Executive of NBS, Dr Yemi Kale, agreed on the strategic partnership when the former visited the latter in his office. However, Adesugba said the partnership was aimed at assisting the authority to robustly define both the import and export data points for analysis and for decision making through the free trade zone gateways.
In a statement issued by Head, Corporate Communications, NEPZA, Mr. Martins Odeh, he pointed out that the synergy was directed at sharing relevant data between the two agencies in order to regularly highlight the zone scheme’s contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and employment generation.
Adesugba, added that the collaboration will also assist in providing training to NEPZA’s staff on high quality data gathering, presentation, analysis and interpretation, adding that the understanding between both parties would also give the authority the leverage to navigate the NBS data platform without hinderance.
On his part, Kale said the bureau was set up to monitor indices of the productive sector, adding that any contemplated partnership towards that direction was particularly welcoming.
He said NEPZA remained a strategic agency of government established to use the zone scheme to drive industrialisation of the economy.
Kale added: “It is imperative indeed to keep statistical track of the authority’s contribution to the economy.
“I would like to particularly thank Prof. Adesoji Adesugba for bringing the desired change and innovation to NEPZA. Using statistical tools to gauge the authority’s mandate remains the best form of monitoring and evaluation.