The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) will need 171 employees to conduct a survey on how Namibians earn and spend money.
The 2025/2026 Namibia Household Income & Expenditure Survey (NHIES) will run from 17 March 2025 until 17 March 2026 in 12 regions.
According to statistician general Alex Shimuafeni, a total of 10 368 households will be selected through a two-stage sampling procedure.
The government has allocated a total of N$93 million to the survey.
“To successfully undertake the NHIES, the NSA will recruit around 171 temporary staff that includes team supervisors and enumerators for the main fieldwork,” says Shimuafeni.
During the pilot survey, NSA will recruit 24 field workers and 147 field workers will be recruited for 12 months next year.
“The positions will be advertised in all media platforms including the NSA website and regional and local authority offices,” says Shimuafeni.
Priority will be given to unemployed people.
“It is against that background that NSA intends to recruit individuals within their respective regions. The nation will be informed when the application process starts,” says Shimuafeni.
The survey will be conducted for 12 months and will provide a clear picture of the country’s poverty indicators, both at household and individual levels.
Data from this survey will also show whether the country’s Gini coefficient has gotten worse or improved.
The Gini coefficient is the measure of the wealth distribution in a country. Currently, Namibia is the second most unequal country in the world, after South Africa.
“We will be able to describe the living conditions of Namibians using actual patterns of consumption and income as well as a range of other socio-economic indicators,” says Shimuafeni.
The agency will be starting with a pilot survey from 30 September to 18 October by sampling households in eight regions.
Paulina Ingo, the executive for demographic and social statistics, says this is being done to reduce cost.
“We are only going to pilot the instruments in eight regions because we are trying to reduce unnecessary costs and those eight regions are selected based on a lot of dynamics,” says Ingo.
Ingo adds that the pilot survey will try to cover all dynamics, ranging from informal households, middle income and high income households.
“The pilot survey will cover a period of 21 days and then we are back to the office to integrate those lessons we have learned from the field and then we can improve the data collection,” says Ingo.
Shimuafeni urges households and individuals to be cooperative with NSA officials that will be conducting the survey.
He also assures that all information gathered will be kept private as officials will be asking how much individuals or households earn.
He says individuals should give the correct information, as this will be used for development and planning purposes in the country.
– email:shania@namibian.com.na Twitter:@ShaniaLazarus
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