Nielson Unveils Mobile Assisted Census Operation in Nigeria

Nielsen, global information and measurement Company has undertaken what it describes as "the biggest global retail census operation of its kind to date" using mobile technology to measure 1.2 million Nigerian retail outlets.

In a statement Lampe Omoyele, Nielsen West Africa managing director said, ""This census is the first of its kind in terms of the scale of the project. We've carried out census work in key African urban areas and cities and sample census in rural areas but we have not conducted a full country Nigeria census until now."

The use of mobile phones has made it possible to measure on this scale, according to Nielsen. All data collection has been conducted via mobile phones, which has enabled more than 1 500 auditors to reach the 1.2 million mark, ten months after the project was launched in 2014.

"At its start, enumerators were counting 11 000 outlets per week but that has steadily ramped up to the current 55 000 outlets per week. Vitally, utilising mobile technology means the necessary GPS co-ordinates and photos are captured providing the means to find and locate outlets lacking street addresses," the company states.

The measurement firm describes Nigeria has the largest market in sub-Saharan Africa with a population of over 170-million, with nearly 2 million retail outlets.

In order to address this complexity and scale, Nielsen had to train a large data acquisition team and acquire the resources to produce thousands of maps covering Nigeria. "Our teams also had to overcome many on-the-ground challenges including insecurity, poor road infrastructure, power outages, poor network coverage in rural areas as well as a limited digital satellite imagery and map availability," Lampe explains.

He comments; "The project is syndicated which allows us to make the data available to many interested clients. Once we complete this project no one in the world will have this level of information on the Nigerian consumer market and specifically the depth of data on the Nigerian retail environment. For future Retail Universe designs and updates this will provide us with a bigger base to build from to ensure more accurate results and quality of data."

Looking ahead, Lampe explains; "Our goal in Nigeria is to identify and segment which retail channels and outlets sell our clients' products, their competitors' products and the overall range of categories. This will provide a superior understanding of the overall market and our client's presence."

According to Nielsen the project is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2015 by which time, close to 2-million outlets will have been counted, plotted and mapped with information on trading characteristics, amenities and products stocked.