NSO Economics Unit participate in software training
The Economics Unit within the National Statistics Office has been introduced to new softwares that will support the existing methodology used in the current statistical process.
VSA volunteer and Data analyst Joshua Neale and Principal Statistician Moffat Sanau conducted a short training on Wednesday 1st March 2023 to present the two new software, Survey Solutions and R Studio.
The Survey Solutions is a tool similar to CS Pro, a software the NSO staff have been working with.
Mr Sanau said 143 other countries in the world are using it for Statistical purposes.
Using the Annual Business Survey as an example, Mr Sanau said it is often time-consuming for the staff to go through the whole process of collecting data and entering with businesses that do not respond.
He said similarly, data cleaning and imputation involves lot of work by excel.
But he said this is where Survey Solutions and R Studio can help.
“Web forms can speed up data collection and improve response rate.
“Data can be stored securely on SIG server as surveys are completed.
“Data management can be downloaded to the Shared Drive and imported to the R Studio for analysis.”
Meanwhile, introducing the R Studio, Mr Neale said it is a programming language and an environment, focused mainly on statistical analysis and graphics.
“It is one of the best tools for cleaning, analyzing and making graphs and tables using data collected by NSO.”
“The R Studio makes it easy to make graphs and set up reports that need to be published on a recent basis.”
Mr Neale said they have worked with the Government’s ICT services to set up a Survey solutions “Headquarters” server for NSO’s use.
In addition, using the new tools, Mr Neale said they have put together a draft of the Annual Business Survey and Employment report which will be published shortly.
He will conduct more trainings for the NSO staff about the new software in the coming weeks.
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