Buhari Appoints Simon Harry to Replace Yemi Kale at NBS

By Dipo Olowookere

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has a new leader, Mr Simon Harry, replacing Mr Yemi Kale, who has headed the agency for 10 years.

A statement issued by Mr Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, the Special Adviser on Media and Communications to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that the appointment of Mr Harry was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Business Post gathered that the appointment of Mr Kale expired on Monday, August 16, 2021, after being in office for a two-term of five years each.

He signed the executive summary of the gross domestic product (GDP) report for the second quarter of 2021 released today. This will most likely be the last report on the job as Statistician-General of the Federation.

In the statement issued by Mr Abdullahi, it was stated that the new statistician-general is an experienced data analyst as he is the Director, Corporate Planning and Technical Coordination Department of NBS with almost three decades of statistical experience.

“He joined the erstwhile Federal Office of Statistics as Statistician 11 in 1992 and rose to the position of a substantive Director of Statistics in 2019.

“In the course of his civil service career, Dr Harry has contributed to several reform initiatives including the reform of the then Federal Office of Statistics which transformed to the current NBS, the reform of the Nigerian Statistical System which resulted to the creation and establishment of State Bureaus of Statistics at the sub-national level,” the statement disclosed.

While in office, Mr Kale brought a class to the stats office, churning out figures that became a huge interest to several Nigerians and data analysts.