Accra, Sept. 29, GNA - The National Census Secretariat of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), has dispatched a team of military personnel to convey census materials to enumerators on the field. Mr David Yenukwa Kombat, Head of Publicity and Education Unit of the National Census Secretariat, made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on Wednesday. He said the team is using military trucks to convey the materials to the enumerators across the country.

Mr Kombat said the involvement of the military formed part of an institutional co-operation arrangement between the two state agencies to ensure the success of the National Population and Housing Census. He said considering the huge nature of the national exercise, there is bound to be challenges but described the two-week long exercise, which began on Sunday, September 26, as "impressive". He said even though the exercise is not moving at the pace expected in terms of the number of people covered daily, the Secretariat believed that interest would pick up from the fourth day. Mr Kombat said the Secretariat had also teamed up with District Chief Executives and assembly members of especially the newly created districts to persuade their constituents to get involved in the exercise.

He said such constituents were refusing to be enumerated claiming they did not belong to the districts or jurisdictions under which the Census Secretariat classified them for the exercise. Mr Kombat said the Secretariat was co-operating with the Ghana Health Service to use its life jackets and boats to convey enumerators to towns on islands. He said the Secretariat was also intensifying education to overcome the issues raised concerning the religious aspect of the census questionnaire.

The census is to collect detailed statistics on the size of the population for effective planning. The two-week exercise, which ends on October 10, is also to collect data on the composition and distribution of Ghana's population, the residential accommodation and facilities in use. "This information will be crucial in determining the development policy direction of the county," according to the GSS. It adds that the census will be an important source of comprehensive data on persons with disabilities, helping to assess their social and living conditions in terms of school attendance and educational attainment, employment, marital status and living arrangements.

This is the first time disability issues are being included in the Population and Housing Census. The exercise will also include a housing census, which is the official enumeration of all living quarters, either occupied or vacant, and occupants thereof at that time. "The enumeration also implies the collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of demographic and socio-economic statistics relating to the population," according to GSS. Ghana has had 10 population censuses since 1891. The last population census was in 2000 when 18.9 million people were counted. Estimates have put Ghana's population at 23.4 million.