Data, Statistics crucial in national planning- EFCC Chairman

The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede has described data and statistics as crucial in national planning and developmental processes.

He made the observation in Abuja on Thursday when a combined delegation of the management team of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), led by Statistician General of the Federation, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran and the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) led by its representative, Oliver Stolpe and his deputy, Danilo Campisi paid him a working visit at the EFCC’s corporate headquarters.

While acknowledging Adeniran’s efforts at the NBS, Olukoyede noted that Nigeria’s developmental processes would be much hampered without data and statistics.

“Thank you for your efforts in seeing that Nigeria made progress. We need facts and figures and statistics to add value to developmental processes. Statistics is important to development and we appreciate the work that you are doing for the evolution of our developmental processes”, he said.

Speaking on the new direction of the anti-corruption fight, Olukoyede explained that, without prejudice to the impact of enforcement, preventive frameworks offer better prospects.

“In the EFCC we have been doing a lot of enforcement over the years and we are known for that and have recorded quite a number of successes with it. Yes, we believe in enforcement and we are still applying that very seriously but we resolved that we are no longer going to allow money to be stolen before we go into action and that’s what we have been doing”, he said.

He further explained that going by his survey and experiences over the years in the area of asset recovery, if N10 or $10 is stolen, it may cost about N4 or $4 to recover it, but to prevent N10 or $10 from being stolen, less than N1 or $1 may be spent.

“So, prevention is a more effective way of fighting corruption and that is where we are channeling more strength without necessarily undermining the importance of enforcement. We just created a whole department for that purpose. We call it Fraud Risk Assessment and Control, FRAC”, he said.

While praising Stolpe for his partnership with the EFCC over the years and particularly his support for good governance in the country, Olukoyede noted that the whole essence of the anti-corruption fight was to create good governance.

On their part, Adeniran and Stolpe praised the EFCC for the front roles it is playing in the nation’s anti-corruption fight and the many ways the Commission collaborates with their respective organisations.