-As LISGIS Officisls, Legislators Conclude Study Tour
Monrovia, Liberia – A delegation from the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), and the Liberian Legislature has concluded a study tour in Nigeria, focused on adopting Nigeria’s advanced practices in national accounting, data dissemination, and the integration of cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
LISGIS‘ Director General, Richard Ngafuan, expressed his delegation’s admiration for Nigeria’s progress. He highlighted the critical need for methodological alignment, particularly in price competitiveness and inflation tracking, which are vital for regional economic integration. “The National Bureau of Statistics has a strong national accounts department,” stated Ngafuan. “We want to see the level of innovation, especially looking at the fact that the world is transforming into artificial intelligence. What effect is it having on data compilation?”
Ngafuan acknowledged the experience gap between Africa’s most populous nation and his own country of approximately five million people, framing it as a learning opportunity. “Nigeria has acquired more knowledge and more experience… This is why we are here to see those changes that they have made, so that we can also adjust and make ours more functional,” he explained.
On the Nigerian side, Statistician-General Adeyemi Adeniran outlined the tour’s objective to build institutional capacity in Liberia. He presented several of Nigeria’s recent achievements as potential models, emphasizing a shift towards data-driven governance.
“New things now are data science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data. How have you been making use of all this in our data production system?” Adeniran said. He pointed to specific innovations, including the recently launched national crisis data platform, which provides real-time, crowdsourced prices of goods and services online.
Adeniran also cited Nigeria’s first-place finish in a recent international data hackathon as evidence of the bureau’s growing technical prowess. “This is part of the things they want to see: how we are able to put teams together to deliver on these achievements,” he added.
The two States officials say the collaboration signals a potential trend of south-south cooperation in technical fields, where more experienced African nations mentor their regional partners. For Liberia, the delegation believes that adopting Nigeria’s systems could lead to more accurate GDP measurements, better-informed public policy, and increased transparency for international investors.
The Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) was formally established by a legislative act on July 22, 2004, known as the “National Statistics and Geo-Information Act.” This act was enacted by the National Transitional Legislative Assembly (NTLA) and approved by the Chairman of the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL). The institute officially began its operations in July 2005, following the strategic reorganization of the government’s statistical functions.
This involved spinning off the entire Statistical Department from the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs, with all staff, resources, and even the Deputy Minister duly transferred to LISGIS to form the institution’s foundational core and spearhead its mission. The primary goal of LISGIS is to develop and maintain a holistic National Statistical and Spatial Data System (NSSDS) and an integrated database (NSSD). To achieve this, it is mandated to coordinate, monitor, and supervise these systems to ensure the provision of timely, relevant, and high-standard gender and geography-sensitive information for the Liberian government, businesses, and the wider national and international community.
Its specific objectives include serving as the government’s prime, authoritative agency for all statistical and geo-information data. This involves collecting, managing, analyzing, and disseminating data, as well as formulating national strategies for an integrated statistical and spatial database to guide the country’s socio-economic reconstruction and development. On the other hand, the Legislature of Liberia is the bicameral legislature of the government of Liberia. It consists of a Senate – the upper house, and a House of Representatives – the lower house, modeled after the United States Congress.
