National Council lawmaker Paulus Mbangu has called for an urgent review of the 2023 Population and Housing Census Report, released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) last month, due to what he termed "serious" concerns over its accuracy and clarity.
The report, he said, raised eyebrows with questionable data classifications, inconsistencies, and missing key indicators that could impact policy planning.
Mbangu highlighted troubling issues such as unclear categories such as "Not Elsewhere Specified" for large groups of people, including more than 81,000 in the Kavango regions.
Interviewees were reportedly unable or unwilling to specify their dialects, which raises questions about the accuracy of the data collected.
"The total number of people who did not specify their dialects is 423,293 countrywide. Are we really to believe that close to half a million people didn't specify their dialects or which language they speak? Can that be possible?
Mbangu also pointed to anomalies in the categorisation of ethnic groups.
He gave the example of Europeans, whose descent may simply be given as ''white" without distinguishing between Germans, Afrikaners, and others.
This lack of detail, the MP argued, fails to reflect the diverse cultural backgrounds of the population, while the report also lacks a poverty index, which is vital for identifying regions in need of government support.
"Without poverty indicators, it is unclear which regions might need the most support, undermining the government's ability to direct resources effectively."
The lawmaker is urging the NSA to conduct an immediate review of the data, identify errors, and issue a corrected version.
He also called for better training of enumerators in future censuses to ensure more reliable results.
"Given these inconsistencies, can we really accept this report as an accurate reflection of the nation? Misleading or incomplete data has real consequences, from wasted resources to underserved communities. Development plans rely on accurate census information, so mistakes in population, identity, and economic data can lead to poor policy decisions that widen inequalities rather than reduce them."
Other members, such as Harald Kambrude and Mumbali Lukaezi, supported Mbangu on these concerns.