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Population and Housing Census slated for next year

Prof. Samuel K. Annim

The postponed Population and Housing Census (PHC) for Ghana will be conducted between April and May 2021, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has announced.

The census originally scheduled for March 15, 2020 was postponed twice due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, Prof Samuel Kobina Annim said a major  activity  that  would be  done prior to the  census  exercise next year would be to  demarcate the  country into  smaller  geographical  areas  to enable the  Service to assign  enumerators.

The Government statistician also indicated that 70 per cent of logistics required for the census have been procured adding that “the logistics include tablets, bags, note books and other materials have been acquired and we are optimistic the Service is ready from the logistics point of view.”

He  also mentioned  that  ahead  of the  census  the  Service was  organising  training  at  four levels  for  trainers. 

They are master, national regional trainers and enumerator and supervisors.

 The Government Statistician said his outfit would be training 120 master trainers, 970 national trainers, 6,750 regional   trainers who would in turn train 75,000 enumerators and supervisors for the exercise.

 He said the GSS was hoping to use the school facilities across the country to train its personnel since students may be on break within the period the census was scheduled for.

“We need  facilities to train these 75,000  enumerators and  supervisors  for which reason we would have to rely on  school facilities  for  these engagements,”  he  added .

Prof. Annim said  the  vacation  period  would  also give the  Service the opportunity  to engage  teachers  who live within the  communities and would be  able to play  key roles in the  exercise.

He said training have begun for the  master  trainers and that one of the “unique  things  we are  doing  is  the  2021   census  complementary  deployment  of virtual training.”

He called on Ghanaians to avail themselves to be counted in the upcoming census.

At the last census conducted in 2010, the country’s population stood at 24,658,823, which was indication of a 30.4 per cent increase over the 2000 population figure of 18,912,079, while the current population is estimated to be about 31 million.

BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU

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