UBOS launches Africa Statistics Week

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) on Monday launched the Africa Statistics Week at Statistics House in Kampala

The statistics week, which will be marked by a series of events comes ahead of the African Statistics Day, is an annual event that is celebrated on 18 November to raise public awareness of the importance of statistics in all aspects of social and economic life.

The executive director of UBOS, Dr Chris Mukiza highlighted that during the week, they will hold interactions with various stakeholders on disseminating statistics.

On Monday, they started with training of media on statistics reporting.

Dr Mukiza said the African Statistics Day 2023, is being held under the theme “Modernizing data ecosystems to accelerate the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA): the role of official statistics and Big Data in the economic transformation and sustainable development of Africa”.

He said the theme aligns with the African Union theme of the year 2023: “Acceleration of the AfCFTA Implementation”, and encapsulates the call to modernize data systems on the continent to produce and use high-quality official statistics and seize the opportunities that big data presents.”

The theme for African Statistics Day in 2023 was chosen to raise awareness among decision makers, technical and financial partners, data producers and users, researchers and the public of the importance of official statistics and big data to accelerate the implementation of the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area and promote intercontinental trade.

The Director of Government Citizen Interaction Centre, Ms Marcella Karekye, urged UBOS to make statistics more appealing to users.

“If the media are to do an effective job in communicating statistics to the general audience, it is imperative that the Bureau provides them with information that is significant, understandable and relevant,” she said.