NBS, NUPRC chart course for stronger data alliance to power Nigeria’s economy

By Onu Okorie

 Nigeria’s two key data institutions have signalled a new era of collaboration, as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) formally commended the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) for its transparency in oil and gas data sharing and called for a deeper, more structured partnership.

The Statistician-General of the Federation, Prince Semiu Adeyemi Adeniran, made the commendation during a high-level visit to NUPRC’s Abuja headquarters on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, accompanied by the NBS’s top management.

Oil Data, National Development Inseparable

Adeniran was direct about the stakes: without reliable upstream petroleum data, the country’s most critical economic indicators simply cannot be produced.

“If we don’t get data on our oil and gas sector, we cannot release data on GDP,” he said. “Without this data, the government will not have the compass to drive the economy.”

As Nigeria’s apex statistical agency, the NBS coordinates official data across 774 local governments, 37 sub-nationals including the FCT, federal agencies, academia, multilateral organisations, and NGOs. But with oil and gas remaining a cornerstone of the national economy, the Commission’s upstream data is irreplaceable to that mission.

Adeniran named a dedicated NBS team to engage the Commission regularly on four key data areas — crude production figures, gas reserves, oil spill incidents, and the activities of exploration and production companies.

He also disclosed that the NBS is currently implementing an Integrated System of Administrative Statistics, with 15 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) already onboarded to enable seamless digital data exchange. Additionally, the Bureau is compiling a Petroleum National Account under the broader Natural Capital Accounting framework — an exercise he said demands substantial data input from the NUPRC.

Responding, NUPRC Commission Chief Executive Mrs. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan acknowledged the indispensability of data in modern governance and praised the scale of the NBS’s work.

She noted that the Commission already publishes data regularly on its website — www.nuprc.gov.ng — in compliance with the Petroleum Industry Act, but stressed that both agencies must go further.

“As government agencies, we must morph into the point where we automate our systems and then integrate,” Eyesan said, pointing to system automation and digital integration as the logical next step in the two institutions’ relationship.

The visit signals a deliberate move by Nigeria’s statistical architecture to tighten the link between regulatory data holders and the national statistics system — a step analysts say is long overdue for an economy where petroleum revenues and production figures remain central to budgeting, planning, and investor confidence.

With both agencies now aligned on the need for deeper collaboration, the focus shifts to execution — and whether the proposed digital integration can deliver the real-time, seamless data flows that policymakers urgently need.