Simon Harry was appointed in August 2021 by President Muhammadu Buhari as a replacement for the highly regarded Yemi Kale
The Statistician-General of the Federation and head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Simon Harry, is dead.
According to the NBS, he died on Wednesday morning in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, after a brief ailment.
NBS Director of Communication and Public Relations Department, Ichedi Joel, confirmed his death.
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Joel said: “It is not a rumour anymore, the SG is dead, he died from an illness.”
Simon Harry was said to have taken ill on Saturday and rushed to the hospital for medical attention.
Harry was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2021 to replace Yemi Kale.
Before his appointment as the Statistician-General, Simon Harry worked at the NBS since 1992, about 30 years ago. His last job was as the Director of Corporate Planning and Technical Coordination Department at NBS.
He started as a Statistician 2 at the former Federal Office of Statistics in 1992 and rose through the ranks to become a substantive Director of Statistics in 2019.
Simon Harry contributed to several reform initiatives during his civil service career, including the reform of the then Federal Office of Statistics, which evolved into the current National Bureau of Statistics, and the reform of the Nigerian Statistical System, which resulted in the creation and establishment of State Bureaus of Statistics at the subnational level.