According to a news report from the Kwara State Ministry of Communications X handle, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has approved an exercise to compute and compile the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Kwara State for the first time since its creation in 1967.

The exercise will be conducted in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, as stated by the state bureau of statistics.

“The bureau of statistics has received an approval of His Excellency for the exercise which is the first of its kind in the history of the state,” the bureau stated.

“The bureau consequently invites stakeholders to attend a sensitisation programme on the computation and compilation of the GDP. The stakeholders’ meeting is slated for Saturday July 6, 2024 at the State Banquet Hall in Ilorin.

“The exercise is part of the socioeconomic indicators to drive growth and development in the state.”

The exercise itself will begin on July 13, 2024.

The agency urges all sectors of the economy, public and private, to cooperate with the team that goes around for data collection as the exercise is in the best interest of the state and its people.

Speaking on the development, Pioneer Permanent Secretary of the Bureau of Statistics Alhaji Nasiru Ibrahim said the exercise will be a historic step for the state as it is the first since Kwara was created.

“What we had in 2011/2012 was a rebased GDP exercise conducted by the NBS with the base year being 1990. Unfortunately, Kwara did not pay the counterpart funds of about N14.1m to have its own data,” he said.

“What has been in use was the UN estimates for every state according to a 2007 UNDP Report. Since 2012, the bureau had been asking Kwara to pay its counterpart funds, but it wasn’t paid. Essentially, Kwara has not conducted GDP exercise since its creation, and that means a whole lot. I am the happiest person that this is happening because we have always been calling for it.”

Defined as the economic temperature of a state, GDP tells the size of an economy, and lack of reliable GDP figures could be a drawback for economic growth as investors may not be able to make informed decisions about the economy.