The outgoing Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr Yemi Kale has charged his successor, Mr Simon Harry, to maintain the trust the public has on National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) work.

He gave the charge on Monday in Abuja at the official hand over to Harry on Monday in Abuja.

President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed Harry as the new Statistician-General on Aug. 27.

Kale said it was necessary to always strive to protect the hard-earned public trust the bureau currently enjoys for official statistics.

According to him, trust in the bureau’s work is what gives it its authoritative voice on several issues of national importance and they must continuously guard this public trust.

He also said that the operational independence of the bureau should be protected.

“Where this independence is compromised, curtailed or sacrificed, it raises the perception of the quality and reliability of our data products.

“And over time, users lose trust and confidence in data producers effectively, once again, rendering the bureau irrelevant.

“It is my sincere wish that you will continue to do whatever you can to preserve the public trust and protect the bureau’s operational independence, knowing how fundamental it is to the very existence of the bureau on its mandate,” he said.

Reeling out the achievements of the NBS in the last 10 years, Kale said the bureau expanded the number of statistical outputs published by it from below 50 in 2011 to over 300 publications annually, reaching 309.

He said that in 2020, the bureau leveraged Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools to improve data production quality and timeliness.

Harry, in his response, said that with all Kale had achieved, the bureau was challenged to consolidate on his achievements and build on the foundation that he laid.

“He has actually worked tremendously to improve the statistical landscape in this country, so we cannot afford to just fold our hands.

“That is why this administration will require putting our heads together so that we move as a team because that is the only way that we can achieve results.

“We are all aware of the interest and enthusiasm that the current administration has in the usage of statistics, so the expectation on the system is so high.

“Because of that, we are going to put everybody on their toes to make sure that you do the needful,” he said.