Guardian

Ms. Oge Funlola Modie is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NOI Polls Limited, a leading independent opinion polling and research organization, working in partnership with Gallup (USA) to champion opinion research in Nigeria and West Africa.

The first woman to head the organization, Modie joined NOI Polls as the Chief Operating Officer in February 2012 and was appointed Managing Director and CEO in August 2012. Prior to joining NOI Polls, she was the Fund Director (West Africa) for The Makeda Fund, a US$50million SME private equity start up fund focused on investing in women entrepreneurs across West Africa. An avid volunteer for SME causes, she also lends her voice to women development programmes around the world.

In this interview, Modie tells MATHIAS OKWE that as the only registered Polls Company in the country surveying the pulse of Nigerians on topical issues, her NOI Polls Limited has become a data bank for public opinion matters. She also speaks on her plans to drive NOI Polls to become the biggest brand in Africa.

WHAT attracted you to NOI?

One interesting need was the fact that opinion matters; the mode of opinion research to be able to tell a story and get involved in the decision making process. I found that very fascinating because that’s not very far from what I have been used to. That was the first thing for me. I also found out that it could be a platform for change. This is like an indigenous company where a lot of data resides and we don’t have that kind of data in Nigeria. A lot of what is said about the economy or development in Nigeria is always keyed back to international organizations. So this is also like a resort to local data where international organizations can pick up information from this company. And so far, it has been interesting

How would your wealth of experience affect your new assignment at NOI Polls?

In two ways: competency and integrity. We work with a lot of information here, which are vital in decision making for both the public service and private sector companies. Therefore, what I bring to bear here would be in terms of the integrity of information, ensuring that what is going out can be depended on by decision makers. Secondly, we would ensure that we have competent professionals to carry out these processes and duties.

One key thing that I think is the underlining foundation is research and that is what this is all about. Here, we do opinion research based on what the public is saying, using that to create policies, products and develop different things that can relate to the populace or clientele.

What are some of the opinion polls you have conducted in recent times and how impactful have they been?

We have had some very interesting polls. Last year, we did one poll every two months, but now it is one poll every week. That is a tremendous leap and it has been very challenging in terms of funding. But at the same time we have found a perfect way of remaining above waters.

One of the very interesting ones I think we did was on Rape during the Indian Bus Rape incident. We wanted to find out what rape is like in Nigeria. It was very interesting that at least three in 10 Nigerians know a rape victim. That is, 30 per cent of the adult population knows somebody that has been raped. If you multiply that, that is another 30 per cent has been raped, female population per se in Nigeria has been raped and that is very high. We also found out in that poll that a lot of people were still with the perception that it is a way a woman dresses that makes her susceptible to rape, and that was a huge discovery. 78 per cent of Nigerians thought that rape cases get unreported because of the stigma.

Another interesting one we did was on hidden banking charges. A huge percentage of the banking populace in Nigeria were complaining. 61 per cent felt they were being exploited by banks and asked that there should be some kind of transparency. I know that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been working real hard to get banks to be a bit more transparent in those charges. I know last month it announced a recovery of about N8.6 billion. These are the things that show that we are very much relevant in terms of our polls.

What informs your choice of issue for opinion poll?

We work in teams. We have a team of experts responsible for sitting and sieving through topical issues. Now the reason the NOI Polls was founded was to be a barometer of public opinion. So at anytime anyone wants to understand how people feel about a topic, what you have to do is go to NOI polls.com and find out what people think about that topic.

We have a product we call ‘what’s buzzing in the news.’ Every Monday we discuss what is going on in the country, pick a topic and we have a specific design. We have several design experts who would now design an instrument, which is to be administered without bias. We don’t pre-empt any of our respondent. Typically, it takes about four days from start to finish. Then, we release every Tuesday morning, what we call a press release.

How well has your barometer been accepted by the public?

People have been very willing to talk but there is really no platform for that. By platform, I mean platform for a scientific presentation of those opinions. But the reception has been heartwarming.  We are happy that when we ask those questions, people want to engage in conversation.

You undertake opinion polls on service delivery rating by some government agencies. How do these agencies react to polls results?

I must make a difference between what an opinion polling is and an advocacy. We are an opinion polling firm, independent and unbiased. When we have these results, we throw them out on our platforms. Then if we have access to any of the institutions, we send it to the responsible office; that is where we stop. We are what you call a database. We send you information, what you do with that information is left with that officer or the institution.

Some have observed that the size of your sample population is somewhat usually small. For a country of over 160 million people, could the sizes be representative enough of the views of every adult person in Nigeria?

We have a technical partner, Gallup Polls, which is the world’s premier Polls organization. Gallup has been our partner since 2006 and has taught us their robust methodology in opinion polling. Technically, the sort of methodology we use is such that if you were to sample the whole Nigerians a hundred times, 95 times you would get the same result as ours.

What challenges do you face in the conduct of your surveys?

We have not got challenges so far. What we have actually got are confirmations. For instance, for the water survey, the World Bank said our result has further confirmed their Report. We have also got such confirmations with Water Aid, which says the North does not have access to water. The list draws on.

Where does financing for all these come from?

We have created business units because the opinion polling has a call centre. We need to maintain our one a week polls. So created about three other units: the Business Club unit; the Consultancy unit and the Knowledge Management Centre. We have people who subscribe to services on the Business Club, we do a range of services for them and they pay. That is what we use to fund this.

In the area of consultancy, we do quite a lot of work for the private sector. We also sell our publications. It is not a lot of money, but we are now looking for sponsors, people who are interested in pushing and sponsoring public opinion. Our partners, Gallup do daily public opinion polls and we are doing weekly. So we are almost six days behind. We are the only indigenous public Opinion Polling company in West Africa. Across Africa, we are the second indigenous, every other polling organization is tied to IPSAs or some other else. We have one in Kenya and we have one here. And I think one just came up in Tunis.

How come we have only two polling companies in Africa?

The reason, one is knowledge. I think that in Africa, we have been through so many dictatorships that a lot of people don’t think that their voices count. So it is more for the civilized society; that is why I said it is knowledge of the fact that information is democracy and that people need to let out information for change to be done. It is that disconnection that government is lacking because government actually needs that connection with people where their voices are heard through a scientific way.

What is your vision for NOI Polls Company in the next five years?

To be the biggest public opinion institution in Africa, we want to be big enough to cover the entire continent. Right now, we have people requesting to come and do internship, so we must be doing something good. So in five years from now, we want to be big; we want to have partners across the globe. We want to be able to provide a platform for Africans to voice their opinion and connect to their governments so that governance can get better and people can feel more appreciated.