A workshop on Energy Access Survey in Sudan financed by the African Development Bank kicked off on 26 January 2014 at the National Energy Research Centre (NERC), in Khartoum. The workshop is part of a capacity building project that seeks to increase access to energy in Sudan, implemented by the NERC. The heads of statistics from all the states in the country participated in the training on how to conduct energy access survey at the four-day workshop, which is an important step towards meeting Sudan's energy needs.

The workshop was opened by the Bank's Country Program Officer, Kenneth Onyango, on behalf of the Resident Representative of the Bank in Sudan, Abdul Kamara.

In his opening remarks, Onyango said that the workshop will enhance the skills of statistics experts in Sudan on collection and analysis of energy data. He reiterated that the National Baseline Household Survey (NBHS) which was sponsored by the African Development Bank in 2008 recognized the need to address energy poverty, which was not directly covered by the NBHS. In this context, he emphasized the importance of the workshop towards enhancing capacity to generate data required to inform policy process on energy.

Speaking on behalf of the Government of Sudan, the Director of Training Department at the Central Bureau of Statistics, Amin Daoud, thanked the Bank for its capacity building activities in Sudan. He underscored the timeliness of the workshop, given that it will enhance the country's capacity to collect data to measure energy poverty.