No one can help Africa without data, Jimoh Ibrahim advises the IMF and World Bank.
We share your view on the importance of data – World Bank.
During the current World Bank/IMF supplementary meeting in Washington, D.C., Jimoh Ibrahim, the Nigerian Senate Committee on Interparliamentary Worldwide chairman and Senator for the Ondo South district, urged the World Bank to refocus on establishing the African Data Bank. Ibrahim responded to the session coordinated by Ms. Tazi, with contributions from Loffreda and Loayza.
In his contribution, Mr. Loayza of the World Bank agreed with Senator Ibrahim and explained that the Bank is taking new initiatives with the Office of the World Bank statistician to address the concern and start the training programmes on statistics soon. Senator Ibrahim insisted that the World Bank help establish a Federal Data Bank led by Nigerian initiatives.
Data is critical and serves as the foundation on which new African economic development will be established. Without data, no one can effectively reduce crime or operate a government aimed at achieving poverty reduction. Population data and individual details suggest that citizens should have an identity passport to capture pertinent information about who they are and what they do. Currency data indicates that central banks in Africa must understand how much currency exists within and outside the banking sector for effective planning. Electoral data is necessary to comprehend the level of public participation and why others are not involved in the political process. Every sector of the economy requires data, and if action is not taken now, in five years, it will be impossible to run any government without data, Ibrahim posited.
No one can help Africa without data. Based on the current economic outlook, we cannot guess or assume that it is in a critical situation. We cannot grow in Africa without data. We should invest 15% of our budget in technology-powered data for the next ten years. Our development is impossible without data. He warned the IMF to stop making projections without empirical data. The Nigerian Government will soon take the lead when the current Data Bank bill is passed into law; everyone will be a stakeholder in the new Data Bank. When the bill is passed, Ibrahim urged the World Bank to support the Nigerian federal data bank. He advises the IMF to loan only to African countries with a data bank.
Ibrahim said, “I think that you want the loans you are given to Africa to be paid back, and you want Africa to develop. My only question is, can any country develop without a data bank? Why are you not insisting on one, and how are you obtaining your projected African economic outlook without country data? Once you send your people there and they collect a sample survey, you input it into your Excel and generate figures, with less than 1% of the population of interest supporting such illegitimate data being used to give a loan. I ask you to be fair to Africa. “
