Kigali, May 2^nd, 2019

Today the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Dr. Ngirente Edouard officially opened the 5^th International conference on Big Data. He also inaugurated the new building that will serve as the National Statistics Training Center and Data Science Campus.

The Premier thanked the United Nations Statistics Division and other members of the UN Global Working Group (GWG) on Big Data for Official Statistics, for having selected Rwanda to host this year’s conference. He further thanked all international partners in statistics for their collaboration with the Government of Rwanda in organising the conference

Explaining the importance of the conference, the Prime Minister said that it was a good opportunity to discuss global statistical development issues. He reassured participants to the conference that their decisions and deliberations would play a key role in the development journey. 

The Premier cautioned participants to the conference to always ensure the proper use and protection of data. This is because some dimensions of big data are sensitive, and their misuse may harm individuals, institutions, and even national development.

He concluded his remarks by calling upon all National Statistical Systems to invest in strengthening legal and policy frameworks that ease data sharing while building strong standards for data ethics and protection, to expand data access and ensure appropriate use.

Click here for the full speech of the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister