The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) has allocated N$94 million for conducting the 2025/2026 Namibia Household Income and Expenditure Survey.
The survey is a comprehensive examination of Namibian household finances which will provide crucial data for policymakers and planners seeking to understand how Namibians earn and spend their money.
According to NSA’s CEO and Statistician General, Alex Shimuafeni, the N$94 million allocated for the survey is split into two parts, with the initial pilot survey allocated N$43 million to cover startup costs like training and materials for a smaller team.
The remaining N$50 million funds the year-long main survey, which includes hiring a larger field team, tablets for data collection, household expense booklets, and data processing for the full-scale nationwide effort.
“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 for the NSA to undertake the 2025/26 Namibia Household Income & Expenditure Survey,” he said.
He also said that the NSA will be bringing on temporary staff including team leaders and enumerators for the main survey.
To get things started, NSA will hire 24 people for the pilot survey this year. Then, for the year-long main survey next year, they’ll need a larger team of 147 workers.
The survey will span all 14 regions of the country and will involve a representative sample of over 10,000 households.
The pilot will run for 21 days and commence on 30 September until 18 October while the main fieldwork for the Namibia Household Income & Expenditure Survey is scheduled to begin in March 2025 and continue for a full year to account for seasonal variations in income and expenditure patterns.
“It is against that background that the NSA intends to recruit individuals within their respective regions. The nation will be informed when the application process starts,” he said
Shimuafeni also said that to ensure accuracy and efficiency, the NSA is adopting a technology-driven approach.
The survey will use two methods to collect data on spending and income. The first is a computer-assisted personal interview on tablets that captures basic household information, regular and irregular purchases (like furniture), and details from other survey sections, such as jobs, wealth, health, and education.
The second method is a Daily Record Book paper booklet for households to record their daily spending on things like food, drinks, and tobacco.
Interviewers will help households who can’t read or write to fill out this booklet, and then transfer the information to the digital system.
“The completed Daily Record Book will then be captured in Computer Assisted Personal Interview by the Team Supervisor. Households will be shown how to record daily transactions in the Daily Record Book, however, where there are no literate persons in the households, interviewers will visit them daily to help with the recordings,” Shimuafeni said.
The Namibia Household Income and Expenditure Survey 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.
