The Ghana Statistical Service, GSS, says all is set for the national population and housing census in June this year.
The Service has set June 28 as the census night; which means that anyone who spends that night at any location anywhere in the country; will be enumerated and captured as part of the country’s population.
The exercise was initially scheduled to take off in March this year, but was rescheduled to June due to some operational issues the Service faced.
Speaking to Citi Business News, Deputy Government Statistician, David Kombat, said they will do well to provide a reliable data for the country.
“The population is not static, it is a two-way thing. While people are being born others are dying. While people are moving out of the country, others are coming into the country. And so, if we don’t fix a time to do the census, then we will always have a challenge. So, the midnight of 28th June is going to be our Census reference point. So, when we get to the households, we are going to ask them, how many people slept in their household on the 28th of June. They will give us their names and other information about them. For persons who will die, after the midnight of 28th June, if they were alive at 11:00pm on the 28th June and died after the midnight, we will want that information too,” he said.
2020 census exercise to be undertaken in 2-weeks
The Ghana Statistical Service has said it hopes to complete the population and housing census within two weeks.
The Service says it expects to recruit 70,000 enumerators, and the recruitment will be done at the district level.
Disbursement
Last year, government released GH¢25 million towards the 2020 Population and Housing Census, an amount which is part of the GH¢45 million allocated in the 2019 budget.
This was revealed by Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim at the inauguration of the National Census Publicity, Education and Advocacy Committee for the 2020 Population and Housing Census.
He further stated that processes for the release of the remaining GH¢20 million had been initiated.