BY SETHABILE MYENI
MBABANE – The Ministry of Economic Planning and development together with UNFPA has launched Intercensal Survey the Eswatini Income and Expenditure Survey.
This was communicated by a Statistician at Central Statistical Office, Hanson Dlamini this morning. He said the Income and Expenditure Survey is conducted every five years in order to provide extensive and up to date information on the conditions under which the Eswatini population lives.
“This is to update the information we got in 2017 which assess the population growth. We will also look at the poverty rate in rural areas to assess the standard of living. This will help us to have the information on how many people live under poverty and the percentage of the people that overcame poverty so that we will be able to also calculate inflation rate,” said Dlamini.
He continued to explain that the also look at the expenditure for example on food stuff especially those that are in high demand like maize meal to get the range amount people spend on those products on a monthly basis.
“These programmes aim to help the Government of Eswatini measure the rate at which the country is developing and also find ways to improve,” he said.
He also cautioned emaSwati to be careful during the period of these two surveys because some will take chances and disguise as part of the survey team when they are not, they just want to rob them or worse.
“EmaSwati can identify the team by their t-shirts with the names of both surveys, we also gave them reflector vests with the same writing that they will use in the evenings. There is also a letter signed by the Director of Statistics and a card with their passport sized photos, their full names and the name of the survey,” he said.
Dlamini mentioned that emaSwati should be worried when they see South African registered cars because they will be sometimes using them, he explained that they borrowed them specifically for this purpose.
