By JAMES KUNDA –
CABINET has approved a draft Statistics Bill, to establish an effective National Statistical System (NSS) responsive to information requirements for a modern and smart Zambia.
The raw Statistics Bill, 2017 was presented to Cabinet by National Development Planning Minister Lucky Mulusa, at a meeting held last Friday.

MULUSA

According to a statement issued by Ministry of National Development Planning public relations officer Sikabele Chikuba yesterday, the Bill would be presented to Parliament for enactment in the next sitting.
Mr Chikuba said the draft law was formulated to replace the 1964 Census and Statistics Act, Cap 127 of the laws of Zambia, to establish a semi-autonomous statistics agency for the Government.
“The proposed Statistics Bill will also improve coordination of the national statistical system by integrating various statistical programmes across Government,” Mr Chikuba said.
He said the strategic objective of the Bill was to strengthen statistics legislation and provide an enabling environment for the attainment of stated objectives.
Mr Chikuba said the Zambia statistics agency would have adequate authority to coordinate the establishment of the integrated NSS, to give the country a comprehensive national statistical database and sector databases to ensure harmonised statistical information.
He said a semi-autonomous statistics agency, central to the protection of confidentiality and the assurance of impartiality and objectivity of official statistics, would be operated by a board of directors
appointed by the minister responsible for statistics.
The semi-autonomous statistics agency, Mr Chikuba said would improve efficiency in statistical production and perceived impartiality, credibility and transparency of official statistics.
He said the agency would be a parallel case for institutions such as the Bank of Zambia, Zambia Revenue Authority and other quasi-government institutions.