Take statistics seriously, Malawians told

Former National Statistical Office (NSO) commissioner Mercy Kanyuka has urged Malawians to take interest in national statistics because it measures progress of development initiatives.

In a written response, the country’s first female commissioner of statistics said government, the private sector and development partners should ensure that data is available to measure development progress in all spheres of life.

She said: “Malawi 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals are depending on NSO largely to provide the bulk of statistical data for monitoring its implementation in the very long-term, and the implementation of MIP-1 in the medium-term.

“Without NSO and without statistical data, any policies formulated would be redundant.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. The media must take up the role of educating people from all spheres of life the role of statistics and its importance.”

Kanyuka lamented lack of adequate financial resources to undertake censuses and surveys as planned, as well as flight of experienced technical personnel which made work difficult with newly recruited office-bearers.

Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences associate professor of economics Betchani Tchereni said statistics define decision-making, and called for the automation of NSO services.

He said: “However, data is what makes life move. For instance, if you want to implement programmes for wealth creation, you firstly need to know people’s state of wealth and decide interventions needed to achieve the results.”

During her tenure at NSO, Kanyuka said she helped facilitate increased resource mobilisation, rebasing of gross domestic product (GDP), estimation of GDP by production and expenditure approaches, getting more support from development partners, improve the visibility and profile of NSO on the continental and global scene and saw NSO becoming a board member of Paris.

Read full interview on page 8 of Business Review