The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed readiness to partner with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to strengthen the collection, management, and use of data for national development.

The commission added that the anticipated partnership was also for key services that would be beneficial to Nigerians.

INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu spoke when he received the Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, who paid him a courtesy visit on Tuesday in Abuja.

Mr Yakubu said that while the NBS managed the nation’s largest official database on all aspects of national life, INEC maintained the most extensive database of adult citizens for elections, safeguarded by law and in compliance with the National Data Protection Act.

He said the meeting focused on how NBS can leverage the commission’s network of locations for electoral services.

Mr Yakubu urged the NBS to extend its statistics publications and public engagement with stakeholders to the state of public buildings to improve them for electoral services.

According to the INEC chairman, most polling units and ward collation centres nationwide are located in public buildings, with the majority situated in state primary and secondary schools.

He said that over the years, stakeholders, especially the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and groups representing the community of persons with disabilities, have appealed to the commission to improve these facilities.

The INEC boss appealed for the provision of electricity and water for ad hoc staff, as well as access facilities such as ramps for citizens with special needs, during elections.

“We urge the NBS to add these concerns to the statistics on the state of public facilities that you periodically publish and in your engagement with constitutional bodies such as the National Economic Council (NEC), in which all state governors in Nigeria are members,” Mr Yakubu said.

Speaking earlier, Mr Adeniran said the visit was for the bureau to collaborate with INEC to ensure that available data within ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) were harmonised and available for national and institutional use.

He commended INEC’s diligence and transparency in managing Nigeria’s electoral process and pledged that the NBS would work with it to make its data, including that on the ongoing CVR, available to citizens, especially those at the grassroots.

“Working together, we will produce results. We have seen a lot of good things that INEC has been doing over the years.

“They have substantially improved the photos registered. They have been transparent in their processes. If you go to their website, you will see a lot of data that they have generated that are out there.

“We are going to work with them to see how we can make this data more accessible to the citizens at the grassroots,” he said.

Mr Adeniran disclosed that NBS was developing an Integrated System of Administrative Statistics (ISATS) to enable seamless sharing of real-time data with partner institutions and pledged to extend this system to INEC.

(NAN)