Development and Application of Statistical Business Registers in Africa Key findings Besa Muwele

1. 9th African Symposium on Statistical Development Gaberone 16-21 February, 2014 Development and Application of Statistical Business Registers in Africa Key findings Besa Muwele Michael Colledge

2. Outline Role of SBR in economic statistics programs Challenges faced by countries Development and content of SBR guidelines The way forward

3. The SBR’s role is to provide National Statistical offices (NSOs) with comprehensive, good quality frames that provide the coverage and stratification variables used in the computation of economic statistics and National Accounts The frame is starting point for a survey Poor coverage means estimates are wrong Unknown coverage means estimates are of unknown quality Missing or wrong stratification data causes inefficient sampling and/or errors in estimates Missing or wrong contact data results in inefficient collection and increased possibility of non-response bias Recent concerns over quality of African statistics emphasise importance of ensuring good quality frames Role of the SBR in Economic Statistics

4. Most NSOs visited have major difficulties in maintaining and using a SBR effectively.  The main challenges are: Focus on having a large number of enterprises at the expense of data quality Large is not necessarily good SBR data not adequately maintained Shortage of staff Poor choice of creation and maintenance mechanisms SBR based on economic census using area enumeration cannot be sustained Poor SBR systems – often Excel files on personal C: drives Challenges faced by countries

5. To assist NSOs in SBR development the AfDB has prepared a document entitled “Guidelines for Building Statistical Registers in Africa” to describe SBR design, construction, introduction, use and maintenance Guidelines define basic SBR creation and maintenance principles basic SBR functions basic types of units involved in the SBR Principles include Use conceptual framework provided by SNA 2008 and ISIC Rev 4Use small number of administrative sources to provide coverage Typically tax registration data or VAT registration data Make data available to the public Development of SBR Guidelines

7. SBR Guidelines: Economic Units Model

8. The SBR Guidelines not only provide advice on how to design and operate an SBR they are the first step in establishing a common standard for SBRs.  This will ultimately facilitate the construction of a generic SBR system that can be adapted to the particular situation in each NSO, thus greatly reducing each NSO’s development and maintenance SBR creation or major enhancement should trigger a review whole economic statistics programme Coverage provided by SBR defines the formal sector Informal sector covered by two phase household enterprise survey, or minimal approach labour force survey with supplementary question “is employer registered?” Development of SBR Guidelines

9. The AfDB plans to hold regional and sub-Regional training workshops for staff in the NSOs with a focus on promoting use of the guidelines in implementation of economic statistics programs and the 2008 System of National Accounts, during the SCB IV program Workshops will complement on site technical assistance, covering Conceptual framework Units Construction and maintenance methods Generation of survey frames, samples and control files Generation of enterprise statistics Quality and performance indicators Use of a Generic SBR System Development of a Generic SBR System is vital Way Forward

10. Contacts For further information please contactOliver Chinganya, Besa Muwele or Michael Colledge at the following addresses: O.Chinganya@afdb.org b.muwele@afdb.org michael.colledge@gmail.com

11. Thank you