By Mulengera Reporters
In line with its mandate, being Uganda’s national statistics office, Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has embarked on vigorous preparations to carry out this year 2025’s Aquaculture Census. This exercise is basically aimed at collecting, validating and making available the latest and current statistical data relating to the aquaculture sub sector.
Information to be collected will reference all activities relating to the entire fishing and fish farming value chain in Uganda; including the number aquaculture farms in the country, production levels, value addition initiatives, technologies used, systems types, socio-economic data relating to the sub sector operators and the impact aquaculture activities are having on the environment.
All districts involved in fish farming and related activities will be covered with enumerators asking questions and capturing information relating to fish ponds, fish pens, fish cages, fish tanks and small farm reservoirs. To be able to pull it off, and effectively so, UBOS is closely collaborating with district planners and fisheries officers in the districts, cities and other local government units.
The information obtained and validated will be integrated to become part of Uganda’s National Statistical System (NSS). As always, the Bureau has promised to collect and produce accurate and timely data in order to enrich and enhance evidence-based planning, policy making, interventions and the appropriate allocation of resources all aimed at amplifying the fish farming sub sector with a view to enabling the actors therein to effectively contribute to the socio-economic transformation and development of their country.
An enhanced and better managed fishing sub sector has a lot to do with food security and overall economic development of Uganda as a country. 
In preparing to collect and going on to disseminate accurate data about the aquaculture sub sector, UBOS is inevitably closely collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry & Fisheries which is the primary duty-bearer on all matters to do with fishing activities in Uganda.
The UBOS top leadership is calling on all stakeholders, especially those managing aquaculture establishments, to fully cooperate and support the census exercise by providing the data collectors with all the information they desire by answering all the enumerators’ as truthfully as possible.
At a recent public training event at Collins Hotel Mukono, Ag. Executive Director Dr. Vincent Fred Ssenono, representing the ED Dr. Chris Mukiza, illustrated the extent to which UBOS is prepared to meet all stakeholders’ expectations regarding the upcoming aquaculture census exercise.
Speaking at the commencement or opening ceremony for the 6 days training for a total of 284 enumerators, Dr. Ssenono explained that all this had been preceded with the recruitment of data collectors covering the whole country. Then there was the training of trainers at Nile Resort Hotel Jinja, where the activity was undertaken between Thursday 24th April and Monday 28th April.
Dr. Ssenono asserted that such training was a key component of preparations for the commencement of actual data collection because for the data collectors to do a good job, they have to be equipped with the relevant technical skills required. This can only happen through training sessions like the one at Collin Hotel.
Conducted by a team of highly skilled and technical experts, the Collin Hotel training aimed at building the enumerators’ capacity to effectively handle data collection tools, enhancing their capabilities regarding the data collection methodology, the use of digital tools, adherence to highest ethical standards and best practice guiding statistical data collection.
The training was also used to prepare the data collectors and enumerators for the oath of office and of secrecy they must take, as a matter of principle, binding themselves on confidentiality matters. It’s only after this oath has been taken that the data collectors are unleashed to go into the field to do the needful.
Dr. Ssenono implored the trainees at Collin Hotel to take their work very seriously as Ugandans and all the other stakeholders won’t be prepared to accept anything less than the highest quality statistics on the aquaculture sub sector. He said Ugandans’ right to high quality and accurate statistical data has never been negotiable and will never be.
Calling on them to exhibit the highest levels of professionalism, Dr. Ssenono also told the trainees about timeliness asserting that there was high and urgent demand for the latest statistics on Uganda’s aquaculture sub sector. He also called on them to be disciplined and to also engage in self-restraint, never allowing provocation, throughout the data collection exercise period. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
