Population and Housing Census date is September 26
Government has set Sunday, September 26, for the beginning of the 2010 National Population and Housing Census.
The two-week exercise, which ends on October 9, is to cover everyone regardless of nationality, place of birth, religion or creed as long as he or she is within the borders of the country at the stroke of midnight of Sunday, September 26.
Dr Kwabena Duffuor, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning who announced the census date in Accra on Friday, said the government had engaged 60,000 enumerators to visit all parts of the country to ensure that everyone was counted.
He said the exercise was estimated at GH¢64 million of which the government allocated GH¢32 million in the 2010 Budget and development partners had pledged to provide the remaining 50 per cent funding to ensure its success.
Dr Duffuor said “government recognises the critical importance of the exercise and of the necessity to know the exact situation of our housing conditions in the country,” and committed substantial resources into it.
“Government fully appreciates the value of the Population and Housing Census, indeed of the importance of timely and reliable statistical data that is why in spite of our extreme financial constraints we have set the 2010 Census as a national priority exercise,” he said.
The last National Population and Housing Census undertaken in Ghana was in 2000, and the population stood at about 20 million.
Dr Duffuor said data to be derived from the exercise would not only serve as the foundation for planning and computation of many of key economic and social indicators but also assist the country to better assess the progress made in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, which fundamentally aimed at reducing the levels of poverty among the people.
He called on Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, civil society and non-governmental organizations, religious bodies, teachers and students at all levels, security agencies, traditional authorities, political parties and other stakeholders to support the exercise.
Dr Duffuor expressed the government’s appreciation to development partners including United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Chinese government, Department For International Development (DFID), Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for their support.
Mr John Tia Akologu, the Minister of Information, said the exercise offered the country another opportunity to update her socio-economic and demographic data.
He said “recent figures generated by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) point to the fact that Ghana is on track in the area of economic development.”
Mr Akologu said “Data from the exercise would further give credence to the government’s assertion that the country is moving in the right direction, and that the living standards of our people are improving.”
Dr Grace Bediako, the Government Statistician, urged the public to provide true responses to enumerators to ensure compilation of a credible data.
She said GSS would in the weeks preceding the start of the exercise embark on an educational drive in the media to educate the public.
Source: GNA