The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) has received 60 computers and other ICT equipment worth Rwf35 million from The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

"In addition to the 100 computers that we have already received, these new computers will be distributed to the other key areas of our institution to enable us perform with efficiency in the area of statistics.” Yusuf Murangwa, the Director General of NISR said.

Murangwa said that the latest survey by NISR shows that the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi had destroyed the civil registration mechanism in Rwanda causing many unregistered births, deaths, marriages, adoptions and divorces.

Therefore, NISR with the Ministries of Health, Justice, Local Government and UNFPA are working closely to revive the system and make it perform better.

"Building the country’s capacity to produce reliable data has long been our priority. We will continue to enable the collection and analysis of data on population and development-related with the support of UNFPA.”

Ian Howie, UNFPA country director, said that it was the second batch in a series of ICT equipment to be distributed to all the 4,156 administrative sectors of Rwanda to be used in civil registration.

"With this hardware, Rwanda is expected to have a continuous and permanent record of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events pertaining to the population in electronic data format which can be accessed faster and more efficiently,” Howie said.

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