Census on businesses enters second phase

Isaac Pinielo | Friday June 9, 2017 16:10

The first phase, which was conducted between October and December 2016, entailed listing of all business enterprises and establishments in the country.

Deputy statistician general, Burton Mguni informed a press conference in Gaborone on Wednesday that the second phase will continue until September this year and will collect and compile basic economic indicators from businesses in the formal sector. He said the main objective of the CEE II is to collect information from businesses pertaining to the type of business activity, revenue, expenditure, assets, stock, employment, ownership status, amongst other things.

“Most of the information required by the second phase of the CEE is found in the business’ financial statements, audited or unaudited,” he said.

Once collected, Mguni said, the information will be used for many purposes including profiling the structure of the economy, serving as a benchmark for economic statistics and also as an input for the compilation of national accounts aggregates such as gross domestic product (GDP), gross fixed capital information (GFCF), and so on.

He explained that questionnaires will be sent to businesses and establishments during the second week of June 2017.

“The businesses and establishments will be given 30 days to complete and send them back to the statistics office,” the deputy statistician said.

He urged all businesses to furnish the required information by filling out the questionnaire during the stated data collection period.

“Enterprises and establishments are reminded that as per the provisions of the Statistics Act, it is mandatory for individuals, businesses and households to furnish information required in any survey conducted by Statistics Botswana,” Mguni said.

He noted that failure to provide the required information is not only a breach of law, but also adds to erosion of the quality of the economic indicators that will be produced at the end of the census.

Such erosion, he said, has to be avoided by all means so that the resultant indicators articulate a very close or accurate picture of the existing reality.

Furthermore, he said the decisions made on the basis of these indicators would be more likely to achieve the intended outcomes, adding that such decisions would include those made by the business community on the basis of the same indicators.

The data agency assured all those who will be respondents to this survey that confidentiality of all information gathered is guaranteed.

“Any person employed to execute any duty under the Statistics Act of 2009, signs an Oath of Secrecy before a Commissioner of Oaths and understands what this means, its importance and consequences of failure to comply,” Mguni said.