The National Statistical Office (NSO) has expressed fears of failing to reach their targeted period in the Economic Activities Census due to low response rate of companies in giving their audited financial accounts.

NSO Public Relations Officer, Kingsley Manda said the Economic Activities Census which was rolled out in the country in November last year was supposed to end in February this year.

“The data collection for the economic activities census is in progress,” said Manda.

However, Manda said due to the hiccup being faced only 30 percent of the companies have been registered.

“Some companies are taking time to give their financial audited account because they feel like these are confidential documents  but for us we are mandated by the laws  whereby were allowed to look these document solely to be used for statistics,” said Manda.

5,000 companies both local and abroad are expected to be registered in through the census.