Dr. Chris Mukiza, Executive Director of the Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), has released an update on the progress of the Parish Development Model (PDM) data collection exercise.
Speaking to the press at UBOS headquarters in Kampala, Mukiza revealed that if there was enough funding to facilitate the exercise, the whole process would now be complete.
“At this time, we are not ready to advise the government to deploy the PDM funds as we have not fully established the right number of beneficiaries. In Kampala where we sit, we have so far only collected than 1%, Wakiso the same applies to towns and city councils,” Mukiza said.
“Some districts had the money for the PDM data collection exercise, but we found out later that they had used it for other purposes and had not paid the enumerators. We won’t leave anyone behind and if we get the funds in time, the whole process will be completed by August this year,” he added.
Regarding the upcoming population census, the Executive Director noted that the mapping exercise is ongoing, delineating the whole country into small administrative units to facilitate the work of the census takers.
“We delineate physical features, community variables with common queries being water source, schools and the rest. This will take us until the end of April 2023, then we will take care of the pilot phase,” he noted.
Mr. Albert Byamugisha, Chairman of the Board of UBOS, noted that once the census is done, it will help resolve several contradictions arising from various organizations with regards to Ugandan statistics.
He also noted that they have agreed as a board, the senior management of UBOS to always meet with the line minister on a quarterly basis to further discuss the office’s collection and sharing of data.
