Addis Ababa, October 21, 2026 (FMC) — Ethiopia is championing an African statistical system capable of independently measuring the continent’s progress, safeguarding the integrity of its data and ensuring that development decisions are grounded in reliable evidence, President Taye Atske-Selassie has said.
Addressing the 10th Session of the Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom-Africa) in Addis Ababa, the President emphasized that Africa must strengthen its national statistical institutions to produce credible, inclusive and professionally independent data that reflects the continent’s realities and serves its development priorities.
His remarks placed statistical independence and African institutional capacity at the centre of the continent’s ability to assess its own progress, determine development priorities and make decisions based on scientific evidence.
Recalling that African heads of state and government adopted the African Charter on Statistics in Addis Ababa in 2009, Taye highlighted the significance of the Ethiopian capital as the continent’s statistical community convenes to consider how Africa measures its development.
Ethiopia has undertaken reforms to strengthen the institutional foundations of its own statistical system, including revising statistical legislation and establishing the Ethiopian Statistics Service to lead and coordinate national statistical activities, he said.
The President stressed that the value of data lies not simply in its production, but in its ability to inform decisions. Statistical information must be properly understood, communicated clearly and used by policymakers and citizens to guide development and assess results.
He also underscored the importance of modernizing statistical institutions to integrate diverse data sources and adopt emerging technologies without compromising statistical integrity or professional independence.
**“Innovation must enhance quality and independence of the national statistical ecosystem to gain public and institutional trust,”** he said.
Taye called on African governments to uphold the professional independence of official statistics, strengthen their legal and institutional frameworks, invest in national statistical systems and make scientific evidence central to decision-making.
He warned that poor-quality data obstructs evidence-based policymaking, impedes development and undermines accountability. Ensuring access to high-quality statistics as a reliable public good therefore requires coordinated efforts by African governments, national statistical institutions and partners, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
The President reaffirmed Ethiopia’s readiness to share its experience with other African countries while learning from their approaches, emphasizing cooperation and mutual learning in addressing the challenges facing national statistical systems.
The session is being held under the theme “Unleashing the value of data in Africa: making official statistics a true mirror of the continent.” It provides a continental platform for strengthening statistical capacity and ensuring that official data captures Africa’s realities and supports its development ambitions.
Ethiopia’s position underscores the strategic importance of African countries possessing the institutional capacity, professional independence and reliable statistical foundations needed to measure their own progress and shape development policies around evidence drawn from their own societies.