Compilation and analysis of the national Food Balance Sheet in Nigeria

Under the frame of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics (GSARS) program, Nigeria held a training for the compilation and analysis of the national food balance sheets (FBS) from 19th to 28th of October, 2022.

The training sessions were officially opened by Mohammed Ibrahim, Assistant Director of Planning from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development of Nigeria (FMARD), and Alphonsus Onwuemeka, national coordinator for SDGs and Statistics from Nigeria FAO Country Office, and facilitated by Mr. Dominique Habimana and Ms. Livia Lombardi, FBS experts, and trainers from FAO HQ.

The training was organized in multiple remote support sessions aiming the National Technical Working Group (TWG) to master the FBS concepts and definitions and be able to use the FBS tool to compile the future national FBS.

The national TWG  coordinated by Dare Orolunmola (Director, FMARD) is composed of 10 participants, with 70% males and 30% females. The members of the TWG came from the National Bureau of Statistics of Nigeria (NBS), the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (FMARD), the National Seed Council of Nigeria (NSC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and the National Population Commission of Nigeria (NPC).

The FBS training concluded with a restitution meeting. The FAO Country Representative of Nigeria, Mr. Fred Kafeero, opened the meeting and the TWG coordinator Dare Orolunmola (FMARD) presented the results of the compiled national FBS to the Senior management of the institutions involved. The restitution meeting discussed the importance of the FBS results, and their use for informing national agriculture policies.