Harnessing Big Data for Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Nigeria faces a myriad of development challenges in her efforts to grow the economy, create jobs and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Since independence, the Government has developed many Plans and Strategies, including the current Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, in an attempt to address these challenges. The ERGP, which is broadly aligned to the SDGs, is aimed at improving macroeconomic stability; fostering economic growth and diversification; improving competitiveness; fostering social inclusion; and enhancing governance and security. Recent information, communication and technological advances have led to data -from both conventional and unconventional sources- to be readily available in high volumes and velocity and in a variety of forms, or simply, to a Data Revolution. This paper examines the role of Big Data and Data Revolution in promoting sustainable development in Nigeria, as well the emerging opportunities for Statisticians in this regard. The paper posits that the attainment of the SDGs will be greatly hampered if Statisticians do not ask the right questions; access relevant data information and, crucially, perform deeper analytics around data and information. Statisticians have an important role to play in promoting Nigeria’s sustainable development agenda, but only if they become more entrepreneurial; and adequately master and apply the requisite technical and non-technical skills.