I had the privilege of speaking at the African Regional Forum on Statistical Use in Parliament at the Global Data Festival in Nairobi, Kenya, where we explored how data and technology can make our nations stronger, smarter, and more resilient. The energy here has been incredible! We discussed how to ensure the numbers our statisticians collect truly help leaders make the best decisions for citizens, and how to finance official statistics sustainably. Across Africa, our national statistics offices are underfunded, understaffed, and often misunderstood by the very people who need our work most. Yet the world is asking more of us. SDGs, climate reporting, poverty tracking, job creation data, gender disaggregation, all of it. More demand, less money. That is the paradox we are living in. Our big lesson from Ghana? Data is not just numbers on a sheet. It is about people and their lives. We decided to make data so helpful that no one could ignore it. Since 2019, we have run the Data for Accountability Project with Parliament of Ghana, ACEPA, and the Hewlett Foundation: make official statistics a living tool in parliamentary work, not a technical report gathering dust on a shelf. We built constituency profiles. Not national averages. Not aggregate reports. Specific data for each MP's district. Poverty rates. School enrollment. Flood risk. Maternal mortality. One MP said the profiles changed how development partners treated her proposals. Another said it helped him see his constituents not as voters, but as people with specific needs. Last month, we released special reports showing how multidimensional poverty affects all 261 districts, helping MPs represent their communities with more targeted support. We built StatsBank, a portal with over 350 indicators accessible by phone or tablet. Parliament and the public no longer wait for our reports. They log in and look. We are also working with KNUST to digitise Ghana's parliamentary Hansards using AI and machine learning. When MPs and government saw how these tools improved lives in their areas, they recognised the value of GSS's work, translating into funding to keep doing it. The lesson? You cannot win the funding argument on technical grounds alone. You win it by making data real, putting numbers in the hands of decision-makers, and speaking the language of your users, not just your methods. My message for Ghana and Africa: let us keep making data truly indispensable. Evidence-based decision-making is no longer optional. It is the foundation of every law passed, every budget approved, every citizen fairly represented. To my team at GDF 2026, thank you for representing our country with excellence. To our partners in Parliament, ACEPA, and the Hewlett Foundation, our work is a model across Africa. To every statistician and data professional: your work matters. Put it where it will be used. #GDF2026 #PoweringWithData #GhanaStatisticalService #DataForImpact #EvidenceBasedDecisions #Nairobi