WINDHOEK – The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) and the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) yesterday entered into an agreement on areas of co-operation, including the exchange and sharing of data that will advance telecommunications services and networks, broadcasting, postal services and the use and allocation of radio spectrum within the information communication technology (ICT) industry.
CRAN currently contributes to the data collection of NSA through the provision of the statistics linked to the information communication technology industry, while NSA uses the statistics for the national accounts and the GDP calculations.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Liina Kafidi, the acting Statistician General at the NSA, said: “The MoU (memorandum of understanding) enables the NSA to avail their Data Processing Center to CRAN and related equipment. Under this MoU, both parties commit to share necessary resources, publish information and bind themselves to the confidentiality they both ascribe to.”
CRAN Acting Chief Executive Officer, Hilma Hitula, said statistics that will be collected through this collaborative effort will also be shared with agencies such as the International Telecommunications Union the ITU, which uses the information to rank countries under the ICT Development Index. “ICT statistics include data on broadband, Internet use, mobile cellular-and mobile-broadband networks, among others. Namibia currently ranks 105 out of 148 ITU members states,” she said.
Hitula said NSA has established itself as an outstanding collector, producer, analyser and disseminator of the official statistics for Namibia, and for that reason CRAN, as a regulator of the ICT, strengthened the collaboration they have enjoyed thus far.
She further stated that the sharing of statistics between CRAN and NSA would, therefore, ensure the planning and tackling of pertinent challenges raised by an increasing population and a growing economy. She added that the implementation of memorandum of understanding would also address certain challenges that CRAN is experiencing in collecting ICT data from households across Namibia.
The NSA questionnaire would now incorporate questions on ICT information to allow CRAN to evaluate the economic status of the market and to forecast the growth of the ICT industry, she said.
Kafidi said the agreement would further help to setup up areas of responsibility in which it will create a frame of confidentiality to information, adding that a joint committee will be established to ensure and monitor that the MoU objectives are been met and followed.
Through the shared responsibility, CRAN aims to conduct an ICT GAP analysis – which will highlight the geographic areas in Namibia that are underserved by ICTs and to address the needs through the Universal Access Service Fund, which will be established in due course.