Corporate with field personnel for a smooth trial census - GSS urges public

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has called on residents in the four districts taking part in the second Trial Census to co-operate with the field officers to ensure a successful exercise.

The Trial Census is currently underway in the Kpone Katamanso Municipality in the Greater Accra Region, Aowin Municipality in the Western North Region, Ekumfi District in the Central Region and Krachi-Nchumuru in the Oti Region.

Mr David Kombat, a Deputy Government Statistician, told the Ghana News Agency that the GSS field personnel on Monday, November 18, started listing the various buildings, structures and households within the four districts.

He said the listing would take a week to complete and observe the Census Night on Sunday, November 24, while the actual work for the enumeration would start on Monday, November 25, and last for two weeks.

Mr Kombat said the aim of the Trial Census is to sharpen the preparation of the GSS field officers and enable the Service to identify any foreseeable challenges ahead of the main national census in March next year.

“We expect the various households in the four districts to co-operate with our field personnel so that we can have a successful Trial Census,” the Deputy Government Statistician said.

About 70,000 field personnel are expected to undertake the National Census next year and the government has budgeted GHC 45 million towards the exercise.

They would use computer tablets for data collection, which would be the first time a digital census would take place in the country.

The last time Ghana conducted a National Census was in 2010, which recorded a population of 24.2 million.

The result implied that the country’s population increased by 30.4 percent over the 2000 population figure of 18.9 million.