Ghana’s 2010 Census takes off to bumpy start

Ghana’s fifth post independence and 2010 Population and Housing Census took off to a bumpy start in the wee hours of Monday 27 September – just after midnight on Sunday September 26, 2010.

Some of the initial challenges the National Census Secretariat had to grapple with in the early hours of Monday, were the unwillingness of outdoor sleepers, workers who ply their trade at night and the commuting population to be counted, even though they were the first point of call for the census officials.

Making this known to ghanabusinessnews.com in an interview on Tuesday, Michael Adu Gyamfi, Communications and Media Officer of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and Public Relations Officer for the National Census Secretariat, affirmed; “We have few challenges here and there but we are trying to resolve all of them.”

“It is just about the outdoor sleepers – I am talking about the floating population – some of them were resisting that they were not going to allow us to enumerate them because we had to interview them at night, because we thought we wouldn’t get them during the day. So some of them, especially the prostitutes, were saying that they work at night and they will not use their night for any other thing so they wouldn’t give us the chance, but after sitting them down to talk to them, they gave us the opportunity so we enumerated them,” he added.

Michael Adu Gyamfi continued that “those who were travelling long distances and the rest too, some of them also insisted we allow them to get home before they are enumerated, but we explained to them that once the census night will catch up with them on the road, there was the need for them to allow us to enumerate them and I think they also caved in.”

The National Census PRO further supplied that some of the enumerators complained that they lacked rain coats and Wellington boots, which he did not see as a major hiccup that could affect the census, because it was not every area that was experiencing rainfall.

He however stated “I just met some guys, interviewed them, they said they don’t have any problems with the exception of they waiting for the Wellington boots and the raincoats, so I have promised them we’re going to give them to them, so so far things are ok.”

The PRO avowed that the Secretariat had those logistics but they had all been dispatched to the regions for onward distribution to the enumerators. “So it is the regional statisticians who also have to dispatch them to the centres, because we want to do it in such a way that it will not be much of a problem,” he stressed.

Mr. Adu Gyamfi added, “So we give them to the regions and the regions also give them to the districts,” while admitting “I don’t know what problem they have that some of them did not distribute them early.”

Responding to the issue of insufficient questionnaires for the enumerators, which came up during investigations conducted by ghanabusinessnews.com on the ongoing census, he said “As I speak to you, today we have received more and we are distributing them – even this morning we had some cargo trucks loading and dispatching most of these materials.”

Speaking to the cause of delay in distribution of the questionnaires, the Census PRO explained that the questionnaires were dispatched first to the most pressing and urgent areas, though he wouldn’t say which areas were considered most important or urgent. He however assured that the second dispatch was going to take care of the shortfall in the number of questionnaires on the field.

On the same issue, an enumerators’ supervisor who pleaded anonymity, intimated to ghanabusinessnews.com that it was not until the afternoon of September 27 that supervisors of the enumerators were given only 50 questionnaires each, which were distributed to seven enumerators.

The supervisor said in view of the small quantity of the questionnaires, the enumerators had to retire very early to their homes because they could not do anything, once their few questionnaires were used up.

Reacting to the delay in the distribution of questionnaires which invariably affected commencement of the census, Michael Adu Gyamfi elucidated thus: “We never said we were going to start the census on the census night – we rather said that on 26th September which is the census date, we were going to enumerate those in the institutions, but we never said we were going to enumerate those in the households, so people had a problem with the fact that we said we were going to do the census at night.”

“So in the morning of Sunday, we went to the hospitals to enumerate patients and in the evening we went to the hotels to enumerate the guests in the hotels and then in the night we went to the field to enumerate the floating population – that is the outdoor sleepers, and then the next day which was Monday, that was when we started with the enumeration exercise in the household itself,” the PRO expatiated further.

Meanwhile, according to Grace Bediako, Ghana’s Chief Statistician, the first ever census was held in 1891 when the country was known as the Gold Coast. She told ghanabusinessnews.com that from then onwards the exercise was conducted every 10 years with the exception of 1941, adding that she was also unsure if a census was conducted in 1948.

After Ghana attained independence in 1957, censuses have been held in 1960, 1970, 1984 and 2000, making the current exercise about the tenth to be conducted.

Available statistics indicate that Ghana’s population after the 2000 census was 18.9 million.

Information from the Ghana Statistical Service however indicate that in 1941 the census was interrupted as a result of World War II but was resumed in 1948. It stated that the first post-independence census was conducted in 1960 and the next in 1970, with the expectation that a decennial census programme would be maintained.

Due to circumstances beyond the control of the statistical organisation, however, the third post-independence census could not be conducted until 1984. Similarly, the next census which was expected to have been conducted in 1994 was delayed. Only in 1995 was it possible to have the needed commitment to ensure the conduct of the fourth post-independence census which was scheduled for the year 2000.

The 2000 Census according to the Statistical Service, was undertaken to update current information on the size, sex, age, composition and other characteristics of Ghana’s population and to ascertain the specific changes in these characteristics which had taken place since the last census was conducted in 1984.

The Census was expected to ensure the continuation of a time series of demographic and socio-economic benchmark data at the national and sub-national levels and enhance the capability-building programme of the Statistical Service.

The main objective of the 2000 Population and Housing Census was to update the statistical information on the characteristics of the population of Ghana and it was the first time a full-scale housing census was conducted with a population census in one single operation.

By Edmund Smith-Asante