South Sudanese lack interest in statistics, says agency

The demand for statistics is very low in South Sudan despite concerted effort in the production of statistics.

This was revealed by Moses Mawien Ngong the chief of field operations, methodology and standards in the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Saturday on the eve of the annual celebration of the African Statistics Day in Juba.

“In South Sudan the level of understanding in terms of statistics is very low, even our government does not use statistics as the tool for development, we have been producing statistics but the demand is very low,” said Ngong.

“We celebrate African Statistics Day to create awareness, we want to make sure that all agencies be it government or international organizations join hands with us to produce statistics for planning purposes,” he added.

The African Statistics Day is an annual event that is celebrated on 18 November, to raise public awareness on the importance of statistics in all aspects of social and economic life.

The African Statistics Day 2023 was celebrated under the theme: “Modernizing data ecosystems to accelerate the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area: The role of official statistics in the economic transformation and sustainable development in Africa”. 

Jackson Ukello, the NBS deputy chief for social statistics said the annual event is a reminder for making use of key documents such as statistics bill, revised South Sudan development plan 2021-2024, African agenda 2063 and sustainable development goals 2030.

“We will be working closely with the private sector to see that the data system is modernized to suit the current trend of development, we are on that way to modernize statistics,” said Ukello.

“We are trying to create statistics literacy because without statistics, the nation cannot be seen, without statistics you will not be able to account for your resources, there is no way we can move away from statistics,” he added.