Govt seeks to improve quality of national data

By John Agaba

In an attempt to improve the quality of statistics on water, energy and education sectors, government has introduced a new data collection system that will be able to provide detailed and improved projections of the country’s economy.

Under the new system, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) will collect statistical data on all the sectors in a more detailed way to give improved projections of Uganda’s economic progress.

“This will help us to be more accurate in data analysis and to give a compelling and wider picture of the country’s growth,” said UBOS macroeconomics statistics director, Chris Ndatira-Mukiza.

He said that they (UBOS) have been using the 1993 accounts system of collecting data, but that this system left some stones unturned. “In the new system we won’t leave any stones unturned. We will be more comprehensive.”

According to UBOS, Uganda’s growth rate stands at 5.8%. The energy and construction sectors constitute the leading contributors to the country’s Growth Domestic Product (GDP), with electricity supply standing at 11% and industries at 6.8%.

Ndatira-Mukiza said they have already developed a yardstick on which the plan will be implemented. “We hope to fully move in 2014. By June next year, we should be compliant with the provisions of this new system.”

Government will carry out the 2014 census in August next year.

Last week, during a regional ECOWAS and COMESA member-states meeting at Statistics House in Kampala, UBOS executive director, Ben Paul Mungyereza, said they needed to be more accurate and give figures that are not doubted by anyone.

The meeting was on how the member-states can implement the new system of collecting data. It had representatives from Ghana, Kenya, Gambia, Liberia, and Tanzania among others. The United Nations statistics division too attended.

Mungyereza noted that the process of collecting data was very difficult.

“We have some small scale industries that are not registered but are operating, those you find down town, we also have to include them. Then we have to measure household economy,” he said.

He said: “We need to take accurate statistics to give the public a better picture of the country’s national development.”

The new system, named the 2008 Systems National Accounts was recommended by the UN as a new benchmark structure for data collection and analysis for countries subscribing to the UN.