By Muhammad Amaan
The Federal Government of Nigeria and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have pledged partnerships on the effective conduct of the 7th round of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey / National Immunisation Coverage Survey.
UNICEF and the Federal Government committed during a survey design workshop in Lagos, with officials of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies as well as others in the academia and civil society organisations in attendance.
Both MICS/NICS will be conducted jointly by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and UNICEF.
The MICS Survey is a household survey developed by UNICEF to assist countries in filling data gaps for monitoring human development indicators in general and the situation of children and women, in particular.
It has evolved over the years to respond to changing data needs with the results of the 7th round of the survey (MICS7) to be unveiled in 2026.
Declaring the workshop open, Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, said there would be structural changes in the standard survey questionnaire and the expansion of its content in the seventh round of the two surveys.
Adeniran, who is the Chief Executive Officer of NBS, highlighted the preparatory activities of the two surveys, stressing that the survey design workshop was part of the strategic plan put in place to ensure the success of the 7th round of the MICS and NICS.
He said, “Stakeholders are here to design the questionnaire for the survey tools that we are going to be using in interviewing the respondents across the country.
“It is also a workshop where we are going to determine the number of households and the number of areas that we are going to be visiting such that we will be able to cover the nooks and crannies of the country and also have enough samples that will represent the responses or information from the entire country.”
Adeniran noted that MICS/NICS was one of the surveys used by government, policymakers, and various other users for theoretical decision-making and development programs and projects for the nation, as well as monitoring and evaluation of such projects.
He disclosed that there had been improvements and innovations to the two surveys since their last round in 2021.
The SGF said, “Improved technology will be deployed to capture geographic locations and improved turnaround time to complete the process of this round.
”Efficient data quality control to ensure results are robust enough for policy-making, capacity strengthening for our staff and improved online presence after the results are out.
“There will be challenges in the delivery of these two exercises; however, it comes with immense value for national development planning, policy-making and program development and government decisions.”
The NBS boss assured that the MICS7 would meet all the aspirations of the Nigerian government and Nigerians.
Adeniran explained, “When we say aspirations of the government and people of Nigeria, we are saying that the survey must be designed in a way that meets the government’s expectation to be able to use the results of the survey to measure the performance and progress made in the area of state priorities.
“The data would be required to assess our country when it comes to progress made in the area of Sustainable Development Goals and the Renewed Hope Agenda of this present administration,”
Chief of Planning and Monitoring at UNICEF, Mr Wayne Bacale, said he hoped the 7th round of the MICS would be a tool to help ministries reflect on how the country was progressing.
Bacale stated that UNICEF is a very significant partner of NBS, pledging the organisation’s support to assist NBS in introducing best practices and connecting global specialists.
He said, “We want to ensure that NBS has all the necessary resources as well as cutting-edge ideas and trends.
“This is the journey for the next two years. We are bringing in professionals from across the globe to train participants in Nigeria, ensuring that we have the necessary financial and technical know-how.”
