ISI Regional Webinar #3: Focus on Africa

Oliver has a wide experience and knowledge of statistical practice across Africa at both  national and international levels. A Strong believer in the effectiveness of partnerships, coordination at country, regional and international levels for effective and sustained development programs. 

He is currently the Director of the African Centre for Statistics at the UNECA. The Centre 's main mission is to enable national statistical systems in Africa to produce high quality statistics, data and geospatial information to inform sound and evidence decision-making in support of sustainable development, regional and national priorities. 

Before joining the UNECA, he worked at the African Development Bank as Manager for the Statistical Capacity Building Division in the Statistics Department, IMF as Regional Resident Advisor and Deputy Director of the Zambia Statistical Office respectively. He also worked for the World Bank as an international consultant.

Founding Director of the African Centre for Statistics at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Uganda

Professor Ben Kiregyera is a Statistical Consultant with DevInfCo in Kampala, Uganda, a position he has held since 1994. His statistical consultancy has focused mainly on the African Development Bank and other international organizations. He has been heavily involved in the development of statistics in Africa especially in the areas of statistical capacity building, training, designing National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS), agricultural statistics, etc. He is also a recipient of the highly coveted Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis International Award for lifetime achievement in statistics and promotion of best statistical practice in developing countries.

Professor Kiregyera has been a member of various international the Executive Boards, Steering Committees, Scientific Advisory Committee. He is the founder of the African Statistical Journal and the African Statistical Newsletter. He has published widely on statistical challenges and developments in Africa and is the author of the book on Emerging Data Revolution in Africa: Strengthening the Statistics, Policy and Decision-making Chain.

Statistician Economist, M&E Data Analyst Cote d’Ivoire

Sarrie Napo graduated from the Sub-Regional Institute of Statistics and Applied Economy (ISSEA) in Cameroon, as an Applied Statistics Engineer in 2012 and Statistician Economist Engineer in 2014, He has had over 7 years of experience in the delivery of statistical programs in national and international organizations such as the African Development Bank and the Togo Revenue Authority (OTR).

Sassire is currently the in-house Statistician at the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF), a special initiative and international organization established by the African Development Bank (AfDB). He is in charge of the Management Information System of the Facility, as well as contributing to Monitoring & Evaluation plans, using statistical methods to extract valuable information, managing the statistical information system, as well as quality assurance and conformity. Sassire’s goal, as a Young African Statistician, is to contribute to the achievement of the sustainable development of the African continent for the benefit of its people.

Professor of Statistics & Head of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, at KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology) Ghana

Professor Adebanji is a Professor at KNUST, with around 20 years of experience in teaching and research in higher education, and research interests in Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Population and Development Statistics, and Biostatistics. She is the founder and Coordinator of KNUST- Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis (KNUST-LISA), a member of the global LISA 2020 network of statistical laboratories in developing countries. She also leads the Transforming Evidence to Action Capacity in Higher Education (TEACH). 

Statistician at the UN Economic Commission for Africa Ethiopia

Gloria is an International development professional with a background in population and social statistics and public health, and over 10 years of work experience in the development sector. She is currently a Statistician at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Prior to this, she worked at the Pacific Community (SPC) in New Caledonia as a Social Statistician and civil registration and vital statistics advisor. 

She also coordinated the Brisbane Accord Group partnership and represented the group on the Regional Steering Group on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) in Asia and the Pacific. Gloria has served in the scientific panel on innovations for strengthening civil registration and vital statistics of the international Union of the Scientific study of Populations (IUSSP), the Young Statisticians Committee of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), and in the executive committee of the ISIbalo Young African Statisticians Association.