THE ZIMBABWE Statics Agency (Zimstat) has urged Bulawayo companies to participate in the ongoing data collection exercise for the central business register (CBR) following concerns that most businesses have been sceptical of providing information to officials.
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Speaking at a business breakfast meeting held at a local hotel in Bulawayo yesterday, Zimstat director-general Mutasa Dzinotizeyi said the CBR would play a significant role in the private sector and government planning schemes, adding companies should freely provide information without fear as such data would be protected according to the Census and Statistics Act.
“As captains of industry, you use these statistics in producing, packaging and marketing your products as well as monitoring and evaluating your performance and the performance of the economy at three levels – the micro, meso and macro,” Dzinotizeyi said.
“The government also need statistics from sectors in order to plan, monitor and evaluate the impact of its policies and programmes to relating to business,” he added.
CBR is a database on enterprises operating in the economy covering all registered businesses operating in Zimbabwe, but Dzinotizeyi said the exercise would now include all established enterprises in the country.
The exercise which started in August this year is being conducted in terms of Census and Statistics Act (Chapter 10:29) of 2007 which states that each enterprise or establishment is required to provide accurate information to Zimstat for the maintenance of CBR.
The exercise would run up to December 31 and all information which companies would provide would be kept confidential as provided by the law since the exercise is being carried out in terms of the Statutory Instrument 113 of 2013.
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Dzinotizeyi appealed to all companies to participate in the exercise to allow the statistic agency to continue providing quality, timely, relevant and reliable data for business planning and decision-making to the government and other stakeholders.
The CBR would also be used to provide information on economic censuses and surveys conducted by the agency and basic statistics such as employment, sex, turnover by industry and the sector would be derived from the register.
In its response to the appeal made by Zimstat, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries Matabeleland chapter vice-president Mpumelelo Mkhwananzi said Bulawayo business was part of the national statistical systems and as such, companies should co-operate in providing the required data.
“In the absence of such data statistics it will be very difficult for us to operate,” Mkhwananzi said.
“As captains of industry, we would like to urge Zimstat to send their questionnaires in time, when they are due, rather than sending them with backlogs spanning a year or beyond since this would be too much for business because of the busy schedule,” Mkhwananzi added.
