University of Ghana honours the Statistician-General
Statistician-General for South Africa, Mr Pali Lehohla, was pleasantly surprised when Professor Samuel Codjoe handed him an award from the Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana.
The citation read as follows:
Pali Jobo Lehohla: From you humble beginnings at Hermon Mission of the District of Mafeteng in Lesotho, you studied for a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Statistics at the National University of Lesotho, You then obtained a Graduate Diploma in Population Studies, at the then United Nations Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana in October 1981.
From 1982 to 1995 you worked at the Statistics Office of Bophuthatswana, first as a Demographer responsible for conducting the Population Censuses of 1985 and 1991, and later as Director of Statistics. From 1995 to 2000, you moved the then Central Statistical Services to become the Chief Director of Population Statistics.
As a result of your exceptionally outstanding performance, you were appointed as the first black Statistician-General of the Republic of South Africa in November 2000, a position you have held until now. Under your leadership, Statistics South Africa has become a dynamic, knowledge creation centre that produces relevant information for policy planning and implementation in ways that the public has started appreciating the importance of statistics in national development. Your initiative to sponsor young demographers on the continent, and the publication of demography books has been well received by the demographic community.
On the international scene, you have been Chair of the African Symposium on Statistical Development (ASSD) since 2007, which among other achievements helped in the creation of the Centre for Statistics at the Economic Commission for Africa. You are Chair for the Sub-Group on Harmonisation of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA). Inaugurated in 2010, SHaSA aims at ensuring that Africa’s Agenda 2063 is realised through the provision of high quality statistics.
Furthermore, you are one of 25 eminent Members of the UN Secretary-General’s Independent Advisory Group (IEAG) on Data Revolution and from 2000 to date, you have served as Chair of the Partnership for Statistical Development in the 21st Century, Chair of the United Nations Statistics Commission and Chair of the Statistics Commission of Africa. Finally, as SG you accepted to host the 28th Conference of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, the first in sub-Saharan Africa.
For these and many other achievements, the Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, your alma mater presents this award to you as the Alumnus we are exceptionally proud of. AYEKOO.
