Vice President Bawumia with some officials at the launch of the census
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) is set to commence a nationwide Population and Housing Census (PHC), the sixth of its kind.
The exercise, which is scheduled to take off on June 27, 2021, is intended to obtain disaggregated data on all persons in the country over a 14-day period.
This is to aid government in policy-planning and decision-making processes.
Speaking at a programme dubbed ‘100 days to census night’ in Accra yesterday, Vice President Bawumia said “this would be the most comprehensive data-set we have ever had in Ghana.”
He was of the belief that the issue of data is at the heart of policy-decision making, and that “if you have bad data, you will have a bad policy.”
In that regard, he said “the 2021 Census will provide updated information on the population, and will further help us to track down where we are on many fronts in our developmental path, including how close we are in pursuing the international, national, regional, and global development goals.”
According to the Veep, “the 2021 Census will provide important data for the formulation of policies to transform Ghana’s economy and to spur economic development”, insisting that “knowing the dynamics of how the population is changing, helps us in planning our educational needs, where to locate health facilities, how to allocate our social expenditure and identify those who need help the most in our society.”
Dr. Bawumia was particularly impressed about the fact that the GSS has incorporated an ICT module in the census process, to ascertain the level of digital application and access attained in the country.
“Indeed, the census will provide comprehensive data on ICT access and usage in the country, to enhance development in the sector,” he noted.
That, he said, was because “we are interested in the level of penetration in the rural areas, internet usage, ownership of ICT devices, usage of mobile phones for financial transactions, and how ICT may be changing lives and affecting livelihoods.”
Dr. Bawumia also noted that the “inclusion of housing conditions module in the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) makes it possible to provide data, to assess the adequacy of housing stock and to determine the nature of the housing deficit in the country, where we are falling short and those most in need.”
The housing conditions module, he said, “will provide data to assess the quality of housing, the availability of utilities in the dwelling units as well as to determine house tenure arrangements; and that it will also capture, better than before, the sanitation conditions in the communities.”
The upcoming census, according to him, will also see government implement for the first time data linkage technology that is intended to harmonize and improve statistics in the sub region.
“The implementation of the Harmonizing and Improving Statistics in West Africa Project (2020−2024) is intended to ensure efficient data production through cooperation and partnership with National Statistics Offices of seven West African countries as well as 20 MDAs,” he revealed.
The Vice President commended the effort by the GSS in using geo-spatial data to make small-area analysis possible, enabling us identify and provide detailed breakdown of poor households in the country.
“This provision makes for better targeting of poverty alleviation measures. It would enable the Government to develop effective and efficient pro-poor policies, programmes, projects and agenda. The geo-spatial data from the census will enable the GSS and other stakeholders develop multi-dimensional poverty index and human development index that will help greatly in winning the fight against poverty in the country,” he said.
The PHC, according to him, would also provide additional information to update the digital address system in the country.
With this update, he noted that the police, health providers, fire and ambulance services can easily identify incident locations to save lives at a faster rate.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent