The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) has revealed its plans to undertake the 2025/2026 Namibia Household Income and Expenditure Survey (NHIES), a pivotal initiative aimed at painting a detailed picture of income and spending patterns across the nation.
This extensive twelve-month exercise is designed to capture seasonal variations in household behavior, ensuring a robust analysis of economic conditions in Namibia.
The NHIES will commence with a Pilot Survey running from September 30 to October 18, 2024. This preliminary phase will help refine the methodologies and processes that will be employed in the main survey, which is scheduled to take place from March 17, 2025, to March 17, 2026.
As the primary source of data on income and expenditure in Namibia, the NHIES is more than just a statistical exercise; it is a vital tool for understanding the economic landscape of the country. The survey will provide crucial insights into poverty indicators at both household and individual levels, allowing policymakers and researchers to identify trends and formulate strategies to combat poverty effectively.
In addition to its role in poverty measurement, the NHIES serves as a foundational framework for compiling national basket items, which are essential for calculating price indices. These indices are key components in the assessment of inflation, a critical economic indicator that affects every Namibian. By updating prices and rebasing national accounts and the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the NHIES will contribute significantly to the accuracy and reliability of economic data.
The NSA emphasizes the importance of public participation in this survey, urging households across the country to engage fully in the process. The success of the NHIES relies heavily on the willingness of citizens to provide accurate information about their income and expenditure patterns.
“It goes without saying that the NSA truly appreciates the assistance rendered by all households in Namibia for our past surveys, censuses and mapping exercises. It is only through the cooperation of our fellow Namibian citizens that we can collect data and provide statistics for national development. It is against that background that the NSA humbly request all citizens, households and those that find themselves within the boundaries of Namibia during the upcoming NHIES period, to cooperate with our enumerators and ensure that they provide accurate data on household income and expenditure. To the media, we always recognise and value your significant role of spreading the messages to the entire nation. Please continue to amplify the messages of this national project to all the corners of the country,” NSA said.
To successfully undertake the 2025/2026 Namibia Household Income & Expenditure Survey (NHIES), the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) will recruit around 171 temporary staff that includes team supervisors and enumerators for the main fieldwork.
For the pilot survey, NSA will recruit a total of 24 field staff this year. For next year, a total of 147 field workers will be recruited for 12 months.
“All NHIES positions will be advertised in all media platforms including the NSA website, and regional and local authority offices. Job applications will be done through an online recruitment system. Applications can be done via any device that has internet access such as a smart phone, tablet, or a computer. Applications are open to all Namibians and the Agency hopes to give employment opportunities to the unemployed. 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,” the Agency said in a statement.
The Agency also said that for the 2024/2025 financial year N$43,184,910.50 is made available for the pilot survey, logistics, training and other related costs. For the 2025/2026; 2026/2027 financial years an amount N$50,859,729.50 will be sourced from the Namibian Government.
The survey will cover the 14 regions and is expected to yield estimates/indicators at regional level, urban/rural and selected socio-economic groups. A representative sample of 10,368 households will be selected through a two-stage sampling procedure. To allow for seasonal variations, the survey will be conducted over a period of twelve months and each Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) will be covered for a period of 21 days, which is often referred to as a survey round.
NSA will be using tablets to collect data from sampled households using Computer Assisted Personal Interviews also known as CAPI and which will be on these tablets. The use of these portable devices brings an advantage to the data collection process since it strengthens data quality control on interview level and shorten the lengthy stages of data collection, data capturing and processing and, thus minimizing the time it takes to release the final report.
“Two instruments (questionnaires) of the survey will be used to record information on consumption and income. The first instrument is the questionnaire captured in CAPI, which will be used to record demographic information and transactions of frequent and infrequent nature like purchases of durable goods as well as other information from other modules such as labour force, wealth, health and education
“The second instrument is the Daily Record Book (DRB) printed on hard a copy and given to the households to complete themselves. These DRBs will be used to capture information of daily transactions such as food, beverages and tobacco. The completed DRB will then be captured in CAPI by the Team Supervisor. Households will be shown how to record daily transactions in the DRB, however, where there are no literate persons in the households, interviewers will visit them daily to help with the recordings,” the Agency revealed.
The NHIES 2025/2026 is the fifth of this type of survey to be conducted in an independent Namibia, and the second to be carried out by the NSA under its strategic priorities and objectives as stipulated in the Business Plan for 2022/2023 to 2026/2027.