The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) marked African Statistics Day by rewarding graduate and post-graduate students who excelled in a competition to produce infographic reports on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The competition, which kicked off in October this year, was open to students from both public and private institutions of higher learning, in preparation for the African Statistics Day, which was celebrated internationally on Monday.

Yusuf Murangwa, the Director General of NISR, said the winners will on Friday, be presented with awards valued at $8000 (Rwf5.4 million), including laptops, ipads and smart phones.

"We are marking the African Statistics Day over a week-long period, in which we will conduct a series of activities including seminars, debates and sensitisation campaigns to raise awareness on the importance of statistics in socio-economic development,” Murangwa told journalists in Kigali on Tuesday.

"The infographics produced by the students in the competition will give a graphic and visual representation of available data and information as Rwanda pushes towards attaining the MDGs,” he added.

He said this year’s theme: "Promoting use of quality data to support African progress,” was chosen to draw attention to the importance of statistics in decision making and programme layout.

 "When the government helped one million people out of poverty (from 2008-2012), it was not by accident but because the policies were implemented through the help of statistics, looking at where emphasis had to be placed. Our partners, particularly, the World Bank and IMF, both agree that Rwanda is well managed and this has been made possible by statistics,” Murangwa added.

National vs international statistics

The government has previously challenged certain statistics provided by international bodies in favour of national statistics.

The trend is set to continue, according to the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Kampeta Sayinzoga, who affirms that national statistics will always take precedence.

"Most of the international composites are not primary data; the National Institute of Statistics uses primary data and, for us, it is more reliable than any other international institution that takes secondary data,” Sayinzoga said.

"We have had several problems with international statistics, particularly because their sample size is usually very old, so you find that they release statistics in 2013 based on findings of 2009. Primary updated data from our own statistics body has been validated by our partners. This is why we believe they are much more reliable than secondary information from international bodies.”

In mid October, government rebutted the Mo Ibrahim Index on African Governance (IIAG) 2013, which it accused of capturing misleading data on Rwanda’s security, social participation and human rights record.

The report ranked Rwanda lowly in the categories of national security (49th out of 52) scoring 50.4 per cent, participation (46th) with a score of 16.0 and rights (45th), scoring 27.5 per cent.

According to Sayinzoga, reports like The Mo Ibrahim Report often mix quantitative with qualitative analyses from outdated data and, therefore, are unreliable.

"Where we have had disagreements as government, we have always been open, such as the recent debate on the Mo Ibrahim report — we have always come out to give evidence showing where we disagree with them,” she said.

"However, we are working with different international organisations to make sure that at least the primary data they use is timely and accurate so that no one uses failure to get data as an excuse,” Sayinzoga added.

Since NISR was established in 2005, it has produced statistical reports and surveys on population censuses, child labour and consumer price index. It is currently conducting the fourth Integrated Human Condition and Household Survey.