Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — The Somali National Bureau of Statistics (SNBS) today published its 2024 annual report. The report contains conflicting information about data collection and what a retired statistician described as “politically motivated statistics that could fuel distrust.”
In the report, Puntland is mentioned only twice —not as a Federal Member State, but once as “Puntland region”— to highlight data collection constraints that prevented the SNBS from gathering relevant data in Somalia’s founding federal member state. The SNBS 2024 report references Bosaso, the commercial city of Puntland, stating that it has 31,491 businesses. Meanwhile, Hargeisa is referred to as Waqooyi Galbeed, but the report gives the impression that the SNBS faced no data collection barriers in parts of the Federal Republic of Somalia controlled by the secessionist Somaliland administration.
These anomalies raise questions about the reliability of the SNBS annual report and its usefulness for policymaking. “The Federal Government of Somalia clearly urged the SNBS not to mention the political causes of incomplete datasets and misleading information that call into question the professionalism of SNBS staff,” said a statistical research methods lecturer in Mogadishu, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Puntland State of Somalia government is likely to distance itself from the SNBS report. “Puntland sees the report as unreliable and politically divisive,” said a senior officer from Puntland’s Ministry of Planning.
© Puntland Post, 2025
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