Ellen MatseiHire me
Pretoria · Available worldwide · Remote & freelance

Turning messy data into decisions that move economies.

I’m Ellen Matsei — a data scientist and economic statistician with 20+ years building dashboards, forecasts and official statistics for the South African government, FAO, OECD and SADC.

See selected work →Start a projectDownload resume ↓
20+
Years in data & economics
1M+
Farmer records dashboarded
5
International bodies served
100%
Data integrity, every release

01

About

For two decades I’ve worked at the intersection of economics, public policy and data — most recently as Director: Statistics & Economic Analysis at South Africa’s Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development.

I conceptualised and launched the national Producer/Farmer Register, designed Power BI dashboards that give executives live visibility across the agricultural sector, and built econometric forecasts that inform quarterly ministerial briefings.

Now I’m taking that craft into freelance and remote work — helping teams move from spreadsheets to decisions with statistical rigour and clear data stories.

02

Stack

Analysis & Modelling

  • Econometric modelling
  • Time-series & forecasting
  • Regression
  • Trend analysis
  • SDG & M&E indicators

Tools & Languages

  • Python (Pandas)
  • SQL — Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery
  • EViews
  • SPSS
  • Excel Advanced

Visualisation

  • Power BI (Certified)
  • Looker / Data Studio
  • Dashboard design
  • Data storytelling

Data Operations

  • Questionnaire & survey design
  • Field & census methodology
  • Data quality & validation
  • Official statistics dissemination

03

Selected work

Dashboards, forecasts and official statistics — built end-to-end, from questionnaire to publication.

01

Bright Motor Sales Analytics ↗

End-to-end analytics case study

Analysed large-scale motor sales data to surface revenue trends, profit margins by state and car make, and customer-behaviour patterns to inform pricing and inventory decisions.

→ Repo: Bright-Motor-Sales-Analytics on GitHub.

SQLData modellingPower BIBig data
02

Bright TV — Subscriber Case Study ↗

Analyst

Investigated subscriber churn, viewing patterns and revenue drivers for a streaming service. Cleaned the raw data, modelled the relationships in SQL, and translated findings into business recommendations.

→ Repo: Bright-TV-Case-Study on GitHub.

SQLCase studyCustomer analytics
03

Bright Coffee Shop Analysis ↗

Analyst

End-to-end SQL analysis of a coffee-shop chain: peak-hour demand, product-mix profitability and store-level performance benchmarking to guide staffing and menu decisions.

→ Repo: Bright-Coffee-Shop-Analysis on GitHub.

SQLRetail analyticsReporting
04

SQL Joins Practical Library ↗

Author

A working library of SQL practicals covering INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, UNION and FULL OUTER JOINs — used as teaching reference and as the foundation for the case studies above.

→ Repos: Practical-1-SQL and EXERSICE3JOINS on GitHub.

SQLJoinsTeaching

04

Experience

  1. Oct 2006 — Present

    Director: Statistics & Economic Analysis — Data & Analytics Lead

    Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development

    • Power BI dashboards for the national Farmer Register Project.
    • Econometric & forecasting models (EViews, SPSS) for ministerial briefings.
    • Owned end-to-end pipelines: questionnaire → field → cleaning → publication.
    • Represented South Africa at OECD, FAO/AFCAS, SADC and AU forums.

  2. Mar 2005 — Sep 2006

    Principal Statistician

    Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development

    • Led a team producing provincial agricultural statistical reports.
    • Designed farmer-facing questionnaires and ran data-collection workshops.
    • Published provincial profiles on production, income, expenditure and prices.

  3. Jan 2003 — Feb 2005

    Senior Survey Statistician

    Statistics South Africa

    • Processed Municipal Financial Statements for local-government fiscal analysis.
    • Built Excel tabulation plans for the Municipal Census; briefed National Treasury.
    • Analysed impact of the Fiscal Local Government Grant.

05

Education

  • Data Science (Self-directed, GitHub portfolio)SQL · Python · Power BI · EViewsFeb — Apr 2026
  • BCom Honours — Economics / EconometricsUniversity of South Africa (UNISA)2020 — 2024
  • Masters in Business Administration (MBA)Milpark Business School, Johannesburg2010 — 2014
  • BCom — Economics & StatisticsVista University / University of Pretoria1996 — 1999

06 — Let’s work together

Have data? Let’s give it a job.

Open to freelance projects and remote roles in data science, analytics, econometrics and dashboarding.

ematsei@yahoo.com+27 84 695 5489GitHub ↗Download resume ↓