The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Obuasi, Elijah Adansi-Bonah has appealed to Nananom and Assembly Members in the municipality to support the upcoming population and housing census to make the national exercise a successful one.

Speaking at the launch of the exercise, the MCE said "this exercise must be a hugely successful exercise. This can only be achieved if stakeholders at the local level give their support to the supervisors and enumerators who will work within their locality. We can not fail the Nation ".

Talking about the uniqueness of this year’s PHC, Mr Adansi-Bonah said this year’s exercise will be conducted with the motive of leaving no one behind.

The census shall cover all members of our society, such as persons living with disabilities (PLWDs), orphanhood and vulnerable children, the elderly and even street families, he added.

He stated that the government continues to be committed to evidence-based decision making and planning in all facets of decision making in our development agenda.

The census will provide us with adequate data to help us measure, monitor and estimate the extent to which we have made progress on our national development agenda and also the data collected will guide us to measure the socio-economic status of our people.

Mr Adansi-Bonah, therefore, urged all persons in the district, both Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians who may be resident or non-resident, but may be in the district on the Census Night (27th June 2021) to be ready to welcome Census officials and provide the necessary information for their enumeration.

The District Coordinating Director who is also the Chairman of the District Census Implementation Committee, Francis Dwira Darko called on stakeholders and the General public to rally behind the Census officials to deliver accurate data for the nation.

"We need your support in areas of awareness creation and making sure everybody in your community is counted."

On the relevance of the exercise to the Socio-Economic development of the country, Mr. Dwira Darko said the population and housing census will provide data on sex, age, births and deaths, migration, where we live, what we do for a living, access to public services, health and education. The creation of district, constituencies and regions by successive government is based mainly on census data.

Samuel Owusu Agyeman the Municipal Statistician disclosed that the 2021 Population and Housing Census, which begins on the night of Sunday, June 27, will be the first fully digital census, with the use of tablets for data capture instead of traditional paper questionnaires. It will also use Geographic Positioning System (GPS) to capture the location of all structures and employ interactive area maps for accurate identification of enumeration and supervision areas.

He added that Field data collection will commence with the listing of all structures from 13th June 2021.

"The Census Night is set for 27th June 2021, persons on transit and in short stay institutions such as hotels, guest houses and hospital in-patients will all be counted on the Census Night".

However, the enumeration of all persons in residential household facilities as well as institutions and all other persons will be enumerated from 28th June to 11th July 2021 with the slogan “2021 Population and Housing Census! You Count, Get Counted.