By Lodu William Odiya
The South Sudan National Bureau of Standards has called on the government to improve and advance the country’s metrology infrastructure to create confidence in measurement.
Speaking during World Metrology Day on Wednesday under the theme “Building Trust in Policy Making,” John Odongi Nyakaba, director general of metrology at the South Sudan National Bureau of Standards, emphasised that he has been overseeing one of the most fundamental yet often unseen pillars of national development, like national measurement standards.
“We need legal metrology, which ensures measuring instruments used in trade and regulations are accurate and trustworthy,” he said.
He further stated that there is also a need for industrial metrology, which would support manufacturing, laboratories, and technical services.
Odongi underscored that these disciplines create confidence in measurements that affect every citizen, every business, and every government institution.
“In practical terms, metrology ensures that a kilogram of sugar is exactly a kilogram, a litre of fuel is truly one litre, and a telecom subscriber is billed fairly for airtime and data usage,” he said.
Additionally, Odongi emphasised that without metrology, markets become unfair, regulations lose their credibility, and policy decisions may be based on inaccurate information.
In South Sudan, metrology is increasingly important as the country strengthens its institutions and advances toward sustainable development.
However, technical manager Garang Mayor Nyariel underscored the bureau’s plans to work on systems that would regulate and monitor mobile internet data consumption to ensure consumers are billed fairly.
“We want to make sure that if you are buying one GB of data, you are actually being charged for one GB of data that you have used.”