Business urged to respond to ZIMSTATS questionnaires

Bulawayo (New Ziana)-LOCAL businesses should respond to ZIMSTAT questionnaires as the generated statistics assists the government in formulating policies and preparing strategic plans to guide sustainable development.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube said this during commemorations to mark the African Statistics Day which were held in Bulawayo on Friday.

The commemorations, which the African statistics community holds on November 18 every year, seek to raise awareness on the importance of statistics in the lives of the people, including the social, economic, demographic and environmental aspects.

This year, the commemorations were held under the theme: “Strengthening data systems by modernizing the production and use of agricultural statistics, informing policies with a view to improving resilience in agriculture, nutrition, and food security in Africa”.

The theme highlighted the significant role that official statistics play in achieving the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Currently, we are faced with the situation where our response rates from companies are below expectation, hence compromising production of industrial statistics,” said Ncube.

“This affects production of indices such as volume of manufacturing, mineral production, business confidence, wholesale and retail trade as well as sectorial capacity utilisation.”

Ncube said failure to respond to ZIMSTAT’s questionnaires resulted in sectors operating without statistics to inform their decision making.

He said when responses were below 75 percent, the data compromised quality and could not be used for computation of results that were representative of the situation on the ground.

Statistics is mainly generated from censuses, surveys and administrative data.

Apart from the censuses and surveys that ZIMSTAT undertakes, substantial administrative data is generated by Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as they execute their mandates.

Ncube said production of statistics was not the responsibility of ZIMSTATS alone, but a collective effort by all stakeholders.

He commended the media for continuing to play its vital role in disseminating statistical information on the environment, social, and economic development.

New Ziana