In Niger, the Minister of Planning Abdou Rabiou and the World Bank Resident Representative in Niger Han Fraeters signed on Saturday, a financing agreement for the Harmonization and Improvement of Statistics in West and Central Africa Project (PHASAOC), of 55 billion CFA francs.
This project aims at harmonising and improving statistics in order to strengthen the statistical systems in several West and Central African countries, including Niger.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister of Planning underscored the crucial importance of this project for the government as it will enable it to “take charge of the monitoring and evaluation of the 2022-2026 ESDP”, and will also ensure the implementation of the 5th General Census of Population and Housing (RGPH), scheduled for December 2023, and the General Census of Agriculture, as well as to contribute to the digitisation of statistical production in Niger.
Thus, the Minister of Planning indicated that the West African region and more particularly the 7 countries covered by the project need quality statistical data to better meet the challenges of their socio-economic development.
The achievement of this objective is only possible through household censuses, censuses and surveys of farmers and enterprises.
For his part, the World Bank’s Resident Representative in Niger highlighted the impact of statistical data as it reveals the populations in real need of support, insisting on the determining role of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) as the strongest statistical instrument in the sub-region.