African statistics day was initiated in 1990 by the joint African conference of planners, statisticians and demographers, which is a subsidiary body of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). On 27^th November 2018, Somalia joined her counterparts of other African nations in the marking of the African Statistics Day. The events were organized by the Directorate of National Statistics of the Ministry of Planning, Investment and Economic Development. The main role of the adoption of African Statistics day is to increase public awareness about the importance of statistics in both economic and social development for African countries, therefore the Directorate of National Statistics of Somalia aims for the same goal of promoting awareness of official statistics in its availability and accessibility to both the public and private sectors.

The theme for this year “High quality official statistics to ensure transparency, good governance and inclusive development “highlights the importance of official statistics in addressing transparency, good governance and inclusive development in both social and economic sectors thereby enabling the production, dissemination and use of administrative and official statistics. The Deputy Minister, Hon.Fahma Ahmed Noor had moment of speech deliverance and through her address, she emphasized the importance of statistics as well as the role ministry of planning in both economic and social development sectors in the country.

Other guest of honors through their speech focused on the availability and appropriate use of good economic and social statistics can translate into better lives for people through providing evidence as a base for policy and decision-making by the nation or by firms and citizen as well as clarifying that statistics can provide information for monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of the progress in meeting the goals and targets of Somalia government, as well as a basis for effective economic governance to promote the welfare of the nation. The celebration of African statistics day aims to increase public awareness about importance of official statistics in addressing transparency good governance and inclusive development in all sectors of the country.

Accurate statistics are critical for proper economic and social planning in any given country. The essence of getting accurate statistics is the basis for any economic as well as social planning and therefore keeping accounts and official statistics to improve Somalia leads for a brighter future.