By Samuel Akapule

The Upper East Regional House of Chief has pledged its unflinching support for the implementation of Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR) which is ongoing in the country.
The exercise which had commenced in the Upper West Region is being extended to the Upper East Region to be followed by the northern region and the rest of the regions in the country.

The Chiefs drawn from the various paramountcies in the region, made the commitment during an engagement meeting jointly organised by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) and the GNHR in Bolgatanga on Thursday, to solicit their support for the implementation of the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR).

Mr Robert E. Austin, the National Coordinator of the Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP), explained to the traditional authorities that the GNHR Project which is being funded by the World Bank in collaboration with the Government of Ghana when completed would help facilitate the identification of extremely poor and vulnerable households.

He explained that as it stood now the Social Protection systems are not well coordinated making it very difficult to identify the extremely poor very well and expressed optimism when the GNHR Project is completed it would coordinate and consolidate all the social protections systems including the School Feeding Programme, Capitation, Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW), Free School Uniform Programme among other social interventions.

"The GNHR Project which is ongoing when completed will help coordinate and consolidate all the Social Protection systems to efficiently help graduate the extreme poor and the vulnerable households out of poverty. I therefore want to urge you as our revered chiefs who are the custodians of the people to help the project succeed", Mr Austin stressed .

Mr Austin said 390 Enumerators and 180 Community Focal Persons would be engaged in the Upper East Region to help collect data for the GNHR and the Districts would be tasked to assist in the recruitment of personnel to undertake the exercise which is supposed to commence fully in January 2017 and complete in October 2017.

Mr Mawutor Ablo, the Director in charge of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation of the MoGESP, said the GNHR would help in facilitating a more effective and efficient social protection system that had a good potential of contributing to the progress already made in the poverty reduction strategy of the country.

"The GNHR will require the support of all to succeed. Ghanaians must respond to the call to participate in the registration exercise to enable the delivery of a credible Single National Registry that will inure to the benefit of all", he said.

Mr Philip Dornyo , a Communication Specialist of the GNHR Project, stated that project which had begun earnestly in Upper West Region was thriving very well the support from the traditional rulers and the political heads of that region .

He impressed upon the Chiefs and Political leaderships of the Upper East region including all stakeholders to fully support the implementation of the project to realise its fullest potentials and benefits.