A 24-member steering committee set up to provide political, cultural and institutional support for the conduct of the 2020 Population and Housing Census has been inaugurated.
Inaugurating the committee, the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, highlighted the importance of censuses for national development.
He indicated that periodically there is the need to know the number and characteristics of the population in order to plan and monitor all economic and social interventions.
Mr Ofori-Atta revealed that the census would provide a prospective monitoring framework for the on-going interventions such as the Planting for Food and Jobs, One District One Factory and One Village One Dam.
He revealed that the government had approved an amount of GH¢389.9 million for a five-year period to support the census and added that GH¢31.5million had so far being committed towards the conduct of the 2020 census programme.
Mr Ofori-Atta encouraged all stakeholders especially the private sector, multilateral partners and philanthropic organisations to support the census with funds and logistics to ensure a successful conduct of the 2020 Population and Housing Census.
The members of the steering committee include Minister for Planning, Prof. Gyan Baffour, who serves as the Co-chair, Governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Jean Mensa, Head of Local Government Service, Dr Ato Arthur, President of the National House of Chiefs, TogbeAfede XIV, Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Pius EnamHadzide and Dr. Yaw AduGyamfi, President of the Association of Ghana Industries.
Other members are Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako, Acting Director General, National Development Planning Commission, Chief Executive Officer of GNPC, Deputy Country Representative, United Nations Population Fund, Mr Bawa Amadu and Dr Leticia Appiah, Executive Director, National Population Council. The rest are Prof. Opoku Amankwah, Director General of Ghana Education Service, Dr Evans Aggrey-Darkoh, Chief Director of Parliamentary Service, Prof. Abena Oduro and Ms Galina Okartei-Akko, both board members of Ghana Statistical Service.
The Government Statistician, Prof. Annim, in his presentation indicated that two cardinal interventions (digitisation of the demarcation exercise and use of Computer Assisted Personal Interviews) uniquely characterises the 2020 Population and Housing Census. He mentioned that conditioned on the receipt of the required financial resources in a timely manner, the main results of the census would be launched on or before July 31, 2020.
The committee adopted March 15, 2020 as the Census night and by implication, for the commencement of the nationwide enumeration of all persons and structures in Ghana.
In another development, a 15-member Technical Advisory Committee co-chaired by the Government Statistician and Prof. Kofi Awusabo-Asare has been inaugurated to ensure that the major processes, content and outcomes of the Census respond to national needs and meet international benchmarks.
BY TIMES REPORTER
