The Government of Ghana is expected to spend more than GHC521 million on the upcoming Population and Housing Census scheduled to commence at mid- night of Sunday June 27.
This year’s census is unique because it will be done technologically and tablets have been acquired for enumerator and supervisors.
The amount includes the payment of enumerators, purchasing of logistics, fieldwork cost, and training of members to facilitate the effectiveness and efficiency of the census.
Head of Census Secretariat, Emmanuel G. Osei, disclosed this at the information session with Heads of Department in the Central Region organized by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in collaboration with the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).
The information session was to brief the heads on the preparedness of the Region and the strategies adopted to ensure that nobody or household was left out in the enumeration as well as the logistical support needed to carry out the exercise.
Mr Osei explained that as part of the preparations towards the successful implementation of the census, the Central Region had been divided into six zones to facilitate the smooth implementation of the census and to ensure everyone was duly captured.
He said recruitment, training of supervisors and field officers who would undertake the enumeration was ongoing and appealed to the participants to support the GSS to carry out a successful exercise.
According to the Head of Census Secretariat the enumeration process required logistics to enable the field officers to reach out to all villages, communities and hamlets across the districts in the Region.
He said the GSS would need logistical support, including vehicles and motorbikes to reach out to residents in the hard-to-reach communities and urged the heads to avail themselves when they needed their support and services.
On the benefits of the exercise, he said apart from providing an updated demographic social and economic data to support national development activities, to track implementation of global and continental development, the exercise would also help at the district and local levels to assess developmental needs of the people.