 This paper describes statistical business register (SBR) concepts and methods as background for the following papers in the session. The paper draws material from the Guidelines for Building Statistical Registers in Africa published by the African Development Bank, and the international Guidelines on Statistical Business Registers shortly to be published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. It explains why construction and use of an SBR is vital in harmonizing the economic statistics program and ensuring surveys have good coverage, and what additional provisions need to be made to measure the informal economy. It outlines how the System of National Accounts 2008 provides the conceptual framework. It describes the various types of units – legal, administrative and statistical - that are important to the SBR. Finally it outlines how an SBR can be best be introduced, or enhanced, in a situation where limited information technology resources are available, through use of a generic SBR system. |
