Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS)

www.gbos.gm/

Email : info@gbos.gm

The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) is a semi autonomous statistic agency under the department of state for Finance and Economic Affairs (DOSFEA).

In order to facilitate the development of the National Statistics System and to ensure that quality statistics are produced, GBoS adapted an organizational structure centered on seven departments namely:

National Accounts

Prices

Social Statistics

Information Technology

Quality, Coordination and Dissemination

Finance and Administration

Support Services.

The CEO is the Statistician General assisted by a Deputy Statistician General and a Director heads each department. Click here for organizational chart

FINANCE

The funds of the bureau is money appropriated from time to time by the national assembly, grants, gifts and donations from sources approved by the Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs, provided that the terms and conditions attached to the grant or gift are not inconsistent with the functions of the bureau, monies payable to the Bureau for services performed by the Bureau under the Statistics Act.

To introduce a planned approach to GBOS work, with annual work programmes which relate to a rolling 5 year strategy which is set by Council after consultation with users. This programme is agreed with funders including the DoSFEA and donor organisations, and that GBOS moves away from an ad hoc survey programme to a regular programme of sustainable surveys, funded by pooled resources.

The annual work programme is constrained by the available resources, and an annual budgeting system will be introduced to fit the work programme to the available resources. The priorities and items deleted from the programme will follow user consultations and are agreed
by Council.

The annual work programme will be monitored by a series of performance indicators which define the contractual agreement GBOS has with Government, and inform the individual performance indicators for staff.

The Bureau will be organising an annual conference of statistics for data producers and users to be known as the Conference of Official Statistics.

The conference shall –

1. Adopt uniform standards, common definitions, and indicators for statistical statistics
2. Agree on periodic statistics and publications to be provided by the Bureau
3. Adopt guidelines for ensuring the relevance of official statistics
4. Advise the Bureau on any matter referred to the Conference for advise

The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) draws it mandate from the Statistics Act 2005. The Act makes provision for compilation, analysis, abstraction, and statistical information and related matters. The Acts establishes the Government Statistician, under the direct control and superintendence of the government, with the following functions:

1. Advice government on matters related to statistics
2. Collects, compiles, evaluate, analysis and publish statistical information, demographic, social and economic statistics relating to the to the population
3. Conduct sample surveys and census in The Gambia
4. Organise co – coordinated scheme of socio – economic statistics relating to The Gambia
5. Publish such socio – economic data on The Gambia permitted

The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) formerly Central Statistics Department was established since the Gambia attained its Independence in 1965. In 1972, a statistical was enacted (1972 Statistics Act) which mandated the bureau to collect and disseminate statistical data\information. The same act also guarantees the confidentiality of the information collected. The act was revised in 2005 and is referred as the Statistics Act, 2005. This act of parliament has transformed the Central Statistics Department (CSD) to The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS). It is now a semi autonomous institution headed by a Statistician General. The affairs of the bureau is managed by the Statistics Council.

In The Gambia, legal provision for conducting census is contained in the 2005 Statistics Act. The Act empowers the Statistician General to conduct or direct Population and Housing Censuses every ten years.

Planning Units of Department State for Health, Education and Agriculture, the Research Department of Central Bank of The Gambia and The Gambia Civil Aviation Authority

The Statistics Act, 2005, creates the National Statistics Council (NSC). This Council is made up of the major producers and users of statistics and has the mandate of carrying out the functions and managing the affairs of the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBOS).

The Council shall consist of the following members:

* A Chairperson from the private sector;
* A representative of the Department of the Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs;
* A representative of the Central Bank of The Gambia;
* A representative of suppliers of data nominated by The Gambia Chamber of Commerce;
* One person to be nominated by the Conference for Official Statistician;
* A representative of the Strategy for Poverty Alleviation and Co-ordination Office or other key sector Department, as the Secretary of State may determine;
* The Statistician General;

15 April 2003

According to the Statistics Act 2005, the Bureau should have access to all statistical data gathered by any individual, department, business or other organisation, including administrative records or systems.

Except for the purpose of criminal prosecution under the Statistics Act, any return or information collected by the bureau that relates to –

1. An individual
2. A household
3. A department
4. Local government authority
5. A business or
6. Any other organisation

Shall not subject be disclosed

The return or other information subject to the directions of the Statistician General
May be disclosed –

1. With prior written consent of the person from whom the return or information was collected or from his or her representative

2. Where the information is already available to the public from the person household, Department, local government authority, business or organisation concerned

3. The Statistician General or other authorized officer may, for statistical purposes, disclose to department information or data gathered in the course of a joint collection undertaken with that department on condition that:

i) The name, address or any other means by which the respondents may be identified is deleted
ii) Any person who is involved in the collection of, or who may use, that information or data, must first take an oath of confidentiality
iii) The Statistician General is satisfied that the confidentiality of that information will not be impaired

Being formulated

Directory of Settlement

Foreign Trade Statistics

National Accounts and Price Statistics

Transport Statistics

Tourism Statistics

Priority Survey, 1992

Household Economic Survey, 1993

Household, Education and Health Survey, 1994

Community, Education and Health Survey, 1994

Demographic and Socio – Economic Profile of The Gambia, 1960 - 2000

Atlas of the 2003 Population and Housing Census

The 2003/04 Integrated Household Survey

The 2005 Economic Census

Reports of the 2003 Population and Housing Census

Directory of Settlement

Economic Characteristics Report

Disability Report

Elderly Report

Access to the Media Report

Spatial Distribution Report

Mortality Report

Fertility Decline in The Gambia, Trends and Differentials

National Migration Analysis

Housing and Household Characteristics Report

Report on Children

English

Website, paper and CD Rom

The 2003 Population and Housing Census data
The 2003/04 Integrated Household Survey
The 2006 Economic Census

NB: The release of data is subjected to the data dissemination policy of the Bureau.

Survey and Census micro-data are invaluable resources for statisticians, researchers and policy analysts. Our strategy is to widely publicize and disseminate statistical information to different users in a timely manner. The website therefore is the most important tool in our dissemination strategy that facilitates the dissemination of these official statistics.