The software project launch was held yesterday at the Baobab Hotel Resort in Bijilo and is funded by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa through its regional office in Niger.
Speaking to the journalists on the sidelines, Mr Momodou Lamin Fadia, the director of Information and Communication Technology at the Gambia Bureau of Statistics said the mobile technology software will enable the bureau to effectively collect data.
“GBoS, ICT and the UTG promised the stakeholders that we were going to jointly develop a software for data collection. Now that we have already developed the software, we thought it was necessary to invite the stakeholders again to let them see what we have developed. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa is responsible for the funding of this project,” he said “We will demonstrate how the software operates and its capabilities. It will enable to us to produce data on a timely basis and with mobile technology, rather than taking a pen and scratching, you will just edit the data. The people in need of the data can also have access to it immediately. We are going to use GSM technology to transfer the data in any location within the country. Today is just to introduce people again to the software but after this, we will organise a four-day training for the [enumerators] who will go to the field and collect data.”
In his statement, Dr Momodou Jain, the acting head of the School of Science and Technology at the University of The Gambia said the project is a challenge that Gambians should be prepared to go in for.
He added: “If we are to prevail as a country, we should be prepared to take the challenges. As of institution of highest learning, research, dissemination of knowledge and community services are our goals. This project is very important and we are here to support GBoS. If this technology is rolled out it will help a lot in terms of the timely and effective production of data. What they are concentrated on now is consumer price index and producer price index but what about other national accounts and other sectors? We need the statistics of everything and even in the agriculture sector we have to know the statistics as to why the rain fails and what we should do in the build-up to the following year. The Gambia is chosen to deliver the pilot project and in Addis Ababa, we were so comfortable. This is because the country is ahead of other countries and we have to develop our own technology. “
]]>
