The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, has asked all Ghanaians to support the impending national population and housing census exercise in order for the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to generate accurate and reliable data for national development.

Prof Annim told TV3’s Johnnie Hughes in a yet-to-be-aired interview that the exercise will also strengthen Ghana’s democracy.

“I take this opportunity to urge all Ghanaians to participate in the process. I emphasize the fact that Ghana Statistical Service is only coordinating the exercise, it is not the only agency that can do the exercise.

“This, we call it the national priority programme, because it is the basis by which all our policies emanate, it is the basis by which we do our democracy that we have in this country and it is by no other reason why we say that we are going to provide trusted official statistics for good governance.

“That is why we need to support the process and anything that they feel is not in consistent with their expectations, as I indicated, we have different platforms by which they can reach us,” he said.

The GSS will conduct the 2021 Population and Housing Census between April and May 2021.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo revealed this on the occasion of the launch of the Ghana Census of Agriculture Report by the Ghana Statistical Service.

In his address during the launch, the President indicated government’s commitment and readiness to support the conduct of the 2020 round of Population and Housing Census despite the challenge posed by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The President assured the Ghana Statistical Service, the organisation legally mandated to conduct the census, that financial resources have been ring-fenced and that data collection has been scheduled to commence from April to May 2021.

The Service intends to recruit and train field officers in their respective districts.

In view of the numbers involved for the training of field officers, it has become necessary for GSS to use Ghana Education Service classrooms for the training of the field officers given that the classrooms will only be available during this period (April—May) when schools will be on the recession as the conduct of the census is contingent on the availability of classroom for training field staff.