Challenges of measuring specific economic activities of sub-regional West African countries: The Gambia, Nigeria, Liberia and Ghana
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Category: International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS)
Abstract
Reliable and adequate statistical measuring of economic activities of countries in line with United Nations Systems of National Accounts 2008 is the cornerstone of any meaningful planning and development. However, experience in compiling national economic aggregates, in particular, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in most Anglophone West Africa are faced with profound challenges to adequately measure specific industrial economic activities such as; construction own-account, production of housing and agriculture, informal sector activities, and so on. These difficulties emanate due to multiple reasons key among which are the availability of comprehensive data, weak regulations, and human and financial resources. A case study was conducted in Nigeria, The Gambia, Liberia, and Ghana, and the findings of each of the thematic areas are presented as follows: 1. Estimation of own Account production of the agriculture or any other challenging sector in Ghana (Ghana) 2. Challenges of measuring imputed rent, and construction on own-account economic activities in the Real Estate sector in Nigeria (Nigeria) 3. Estimation of the Informal sector activities using an indirect method (Gambia)