The National Mathematical Centre (NMC) says it has trained at least 50 postgraduate students on geostatistics.

“The training is intended to expose Nigerian scientists to this field because, in Nigeria, geostatistics or special statistics is not in the syllabus of the National University Commission. With this now, they will be exposed and have a greater capability in analysing data that presents itself in that form,” the director and chief executive of NMC, Promise Mebine, disclosed on Monday.

He added, “For example, if you can look at Covid-19 data across the states, you can use the idea of geostatistics to analyse the incidence.”

Represented by Funmilayo Saporo, coordinator of the centre, Mr Mebine stated that the training would help statisticians address challenges in the field.

He further explained that the centre had a five-day Zoom meeting that targeted graduate assistants, master’s students, and master’s degree holders from universities and other interested lecturers in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

The training, he explained, aimed at exposing young Nigerian scientists and researchers to the knowledge of geostatistics in their research work.

Geostatistics is statistics “applied in space and time,” unlike “ordinary statistics applied only in locations.”

He advised Nigerian students to take their work seriously and try their best to overcome challenges instead of being complacent.

The director, however, identified lack of funds as one of the challenges militating against the centre’s activities, saying that if the centre had enough funds allocated to it, it would carry out its activities more efficiently.

Also speaking, Audu Isah of the Department of Statistics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, pointed out that the “foundation postgraduate course on geostatistics” was designed to acquaint statisticians with the area of special statistics.

(NAN)