EDITORIAL: NSA accused of hiding the ‘real’ data

The Namibia Statistic Agency’s (NSA's) failure to fully explain to the nation why key national statistics around the unemployment rate in the country were omitted from the main report of the National Housing and Population Census released this week has landed the agency in hot water.

Over the years, it was standard practice to include the employment and unemployment figures in the report; however, this time, Namibians were shocked to learn that those figures were omitted for reasons known only to the leadership of the NSA.

Indicators contained in the census reports are often critical for government to see where it is excelling and where it needs to do better. It is also a tool used by the citizens to measure the level of socioeconomic growth in the country and, to a certain extent, to juxtapose whether the statistics presented speak to the reality on the ground.

If the NSA had a genuine reason to omit the unemployment statistics, it was supposed to be communicated with the public in advance to avoid confusion and accusations of the census results being manipulated.

What the NSA has done with this ill-advised move is sow doubt in the minds of citizens and doubts whether the statistics are credible or not. There must be a genuine reason for the omission, but without it being communicated timeously, the public is forced to draw their own conclusions.