Rwanda has jumped 17 places to sixth position in statistics capacity and data collection on the continent, making it the best in the East African region, according to Africa’s STATS league 2007.

Louis Munyakazi, the Director General, National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) yesterday said that Rwanda has for the last three years excelled in data collection owing to the local population’s willingness to part with information.

Munyakazi said that though the institution is only three years old, it has managed to put in place a dedicated team. According to Africa’s STATS league 2007, only Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Senegal, Mauritius come ahead of Rwanda out of the 53 nations.

The ranking of the other countries in the EAC according to the report is as follows: Uganda is at position 14, Tanzania at 17, Burundi at 41 and DRC Congo at 42.

The announcement comes ahead of the November 18 Africa Statistics Day, under the theme, "Challenges of Raising Food Prices and Agricultural Development in Africa”.

It also comes at a time when the NISR is organising celebrations for the National Statistics Week which will run from November 18 to 25.

The theme for this year’s Statistics Week is "Statistics: The start of decision making” and it is aimed at raising the statistics awareness and reaching out to the users of statistical data countrywide.

Munyakazi said that the Statistics Week is also an advocating tool aimed at raising awareness on the importance of statistics in economics and social planning.

"Lack of quality data on different topics is a major constraint in development planning of any country. So this week will mainly be dedicated to creating awareness on the importance of statistics,” he said.

The annual African Statistics Day was adopted in May 1990 by the twenty-fifth session of the United Nations Economics Commission for Africa.

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