FOR long, one of the problems that managers of the national economy, at whatever level have had to grapple with is the availability of reliable data for planning and other purposes.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), whose affairs are managed by a 15-member board, with a statistician-general as the chief executive officer is charged by government to fulfil this need.

Last month, the NBS released the 2011 Annual Socio-Economic Report on Access to ICT. The report is quite interesting; it shows that the most widely used devices are radios and mobile phones, “while internet usage and PC access remained considerably low.”

According to NBS, “82.9% of Nigerians had total access (those who owned and those who had access only) to radio, and 63.9% had access to mobile phones. While less than half of the population (44.7%) had access to TV, more than 95% of the population does not have access to either the PC or the internet.”

Scan-ICT is a global initiative launched by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Government of Finland to make available quality data on ICT activities in Africa. At home here, Scan-ICT collaborates with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the government body responsible for transforming Nigeria into an IT driven economy for global competitiveness. For last year, 2011, Scan-ICT gave the following indicators in respect of Nigerian households and ICT

— Proportion of households with a computer — 14.8%; proportion of households with a printer — 5.4%; proportion of households with a radio — 86.8%; proportion of households with a  scanner — 3.9%; proportion of households with a TV — 89.5%; proportion of households with a VCR/DVD — 80.3%; proportion of households with internet access — 10.7%; proportion of households with telephone — 3.6%; and proportion of individuals who used a mobile cellular telephone in the last 12 months — 94.7%.

From what we have here, it could be seen that the nearest agreement between the NBS and Scan-ICT data is on radio (NBS, 82.9%, Scan-ICT, 86.8%). On TV, NBS claims less than half of the population at 44.7%, while Scan-ICT offers 89.5%, in the same country.

Further, Scan ICT says 14.8% is the proportion of households with a computer, 5.4% have printers, 3.9% are with scanners, while 10.7% is the proportion of households with internet access. However, NBS says more than 95 per cent of the population does not have access to either the PC or the internet!

On mobile telephony, the disparity between NBS indicators and that of Scan-ICT is wide; NBS claims 63.9% have “access to mobile phones”, while Scan ICT says “proportion of individuals who used a mobile cellular telephone in the last 12 months” is 94.7%.

I don’t know whether both bodies factored convergence in their surveys; many users have devices through which they catch the latest news on radio or listen to their favourite radio programmes, watch TV on the go, and surf the internet, all with their handheld devices.

However, the issue at stake is that it is unsavoury and leaves a lot to be desired if data generated on the same sector by two government agencies indicate so much disparity. Who are we to believe? Clearly, we still have a long way to go.