The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has postponed the 2020 Population and Housing Census scheduled for March 15, 2020 - June 28, 2020.

According to the Government Statistician, Prof Samuel Kobina Anim, said the decision was to allow the Service conduct mapping process and build quality data for the main census exercise.

“The reasons we rescheduled the 2020 population and housing census are driven primarily by the need to deploy geospatial data in the data collection exercise,” Prof Anim said.

He noted that a team of experts from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), University of Southampton, has arrived to provide the GSS with the necessary support to overlay building footprints with their demarcating exercise.

He said the exercise will start with the identification of buildings and structures which are expected to end in June. This will be followed by the census till July 2020.

Prof Anim expressed his optimism that with this new period for the census, it will afford the Service the opportunity to identify every Ghanaian.

GSS had already noted that if some on-field challenges were not resolved, there was a possibility of rescheduling of the 2020 population and housing census from the earlier announced date to a later date.

The Government Statistician at the time of speaking on possible postponement noted that while funds were not much of a challenge, he argued that other challenges could affect the intended start date of the exercise.

“From a technical point of view, the Ghana Statistical Service is very ready to have the census done in 2020. We’ve also received a high governmental commitment that this is an activity that should precede an election. In terms of the date that we should expect our men on the field, we still have to go through some considerations. We did say March but due to some challenges we might a delay by a month or two,” he explained.

The census is estimated to cost GHS477 million.