A New Approach to Industrial Censuses and Surveys for Southern African Countries—A Case of Zimbabwe

The purpose of the research was to identify problems which leads to poor response rates in industrial censuses and surveys in Southern Africa countries particularly in Zimbabwe. The research was necessitated by the fact that the statistics generated by producers of statistics in Zimbabwe do not really shows the true picture of what is happening in industrial activities. Producers of statistics had admitted that, it was hard to get data from industries and this then defeats their relevance in society. The research pointed out that, it is necessary for producers of statistics to be in partnership with the industry as most of the industries do not really understand the importance of industrial data to policy formulation and research. The research also pointed out, the need to remove fear of unknown on industrial data suppliers. In addition, the research also pointed out that, producers of statistics need also to prepare for data collection both in budget wise as well as in the use of qualified and well-trained data collectors.