03 Aug 2020

Due to COVID-19 health protocols, data collection has remained the greatest challenge for Statistics Botswana. This was revealed by Statistician General, Dr Burton Mguni at the ongoing COVID-19 updates on the impact of the pandemic on his organisation’s operations.

Dr Mguni said following the risk of spread of the virus, they were forced to halt the quarterly multi-topic survey, cartography fieldwork, alternative price collection and enterprise data,  among others.

He said with regard to data entry, compilation and analysis, they proceeded with arrangements to work from home. On trade statistics, Dr Mguni said there was a decline in fuel imports between March and April as they dropped by 74 per cent.

He explained that there was a sharp increase of more than 100 per cent in imports between April and May due to the easing of lockdown restrictions.

He said between April and May the Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicated low inflation mainly due to the lockdown, thus the demand was low.

Dr Mguni said they were now reviewing special online enterprise surveys under the new normal and beyond.

He said they planned on leveraging on technology for data collection such as web-assisted personal interviews, computer-aided personal interviews and interface with enterprises.

This, he said, would be done to reduce face to face contact and travel by field officers.

For his part, National Census Coordinator, Mr Kwenagape Mogotsinyane said his office would keep to the 2021 August date for the conduct of the census, but continually assess the COVID-19 related risks that might force a postponement.

He said they had postponed pilot census from the initial planned August date to November due to the set health protocols.

He said the pandemic had impacted on their preparations for the national census, which was scheduled for next year August. “There has been a shortage of supplies such as the recent fuel shortage, price escalations and projects become relatively expensive to fund. There have been challenges in procurement due to delayed tendering processes and delayed delivery as most supplies are obtained from outside Botswana and subjected to trade challenges,” he said.

Mr Mogotsinyane said all these required additional expenditure beyond initial plans.

He, however, made an assurance that they were continuing to reassess the plan on how an unavoidable postponement of census beyond 2021 would be handled.

He noted that they were currently strategising and might go back to government to ask for additional funds. Ends