GITEGA, Oct 15 (ABP) – The Central Census Authority (BCR) organized, on Thursday, October 9, 2025, in Gitega (the political capital and center of Burundi), a workshop to validate cartographic data for the general census of population, housing, agriculture, and livestock (RGPHAE), focusing on shapefiles and the description of boundaries of Burundi’s administrative entities. The meeting was held for communal administrators, provincial governors from across the country, and officials from the ministry in charge of interior, community development, and public security.
In his address, the president of the BCR and director general of the National Institute of Statistics of Burundi (INSBU), Mr. Nicolas Ndayishimiye, stated that the aim of the workshop was to validate, in collaboration with the new provincial and communal authorities, the cartographic data on the boundaries of their respective entities. It was also an opportunity to share some inconsistencies identified in the law on administrative division and to formulate recommendations for its revision.
As an example, Mr. Ndayishimiye pointed out that these inconsistencies include villages not attached to their corresponding zones, as well as village names being used in urban areas, where they should instead be referred to as neighborhoods.
Participants then attended two presentations: one providing an overview of the fully digital census mapping process, and the other outlining inconsistencies in the configuration of administrative zones according to the organic law on the new administrative division versus realities on the ground.
The latter presentation highlighted inconsistencies such as the detachment of certain village from their zones in the provinces of Buhumuza, Burunga, and Gitega, and the presence of neighborhoods in the city of Bujumbura that still bear village names.
During the discussion session, participants shared their input with the goal of resolving the aforementioned inconsistencies. It is worth noting that the BCR chairman, Mr. Nicolas Ndayishimiye, concluded calling on provincial governors and communal administrators to help mobilize the population to participate massively in the general census of agriculture and livestock, parts of which have already been recorded, with others still underway.