Accra, Aug. 6, GNA - Two committees have been inaugurated to oversee the organization of the 2010 population and housing census aimed to provide adequate and reliable data on the country's population.

The Planning Committee and National Census Technical Advisory Committees are to ensure that the diverse operations were carried out in the right sequence and in timely manner based on sound technical considerations. While the planning Committee has the overall responsibility for policy issues relating to the conduct of the census, the technical committee would serve as a think-tank and advise the government statistician and the planning committee on the conduct of the 2010 Census.

The census is planned to take off in March 2010. Inaugurating the committees, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance, said the country needed to restore the 10-year periodicity for conducting censuses to provide current, reliable information on the population and housing conditions.

"As a country, we should commit ourselves to reverse the past trend of irregularity in census taking and under utilization of census data so that census results become a basis for informed policy formulation, programme implementation and socio-economic development," he said. The 2010 population and Housing census will be the fifth post-independence census and the second to combine the enumeration of both population and housing conditions. Mr Baah-Wiredu said the government was committed to mobilizing the resources to ensure smooth implementation of the census. The full cost of the census will be known by September this year and computed into the 2009 Budget.

Dr Grace Bediako, Government Statistician, said the inauguration of the two committees marked the official start of the march to census night and the enumeration. She said some work had already started in the areas relating to demarcation of the country into enumeration areas based on settlements and population size.

The census secretariat has been established and teams assigned to perform various tasks relating to the census. "We are also as part of the process confirming district boundaries, both new and old, so that data collected can be presented for each respective district," she said. Dr. Bediako called on the citizenry, institutions, individuals and groups as well as development partners to join hands with the Statistical Service to make the census a 'truly national exercise'.