‘Ghana needs credible data for census’
Date 2010/9/22 12:01:14 | Topic: Ghana
| 20100921
africanews
Enumerators trained for the 2010 Population and Housing Census (PHC) in the West African country Ghana have been advised to refrain from partisan politics during interaction with respondents and try to educate the public on the essence of the exercise geared towards national development.
The Western Regional statistician Mr. Nana Opoku who represented the Metropolis gave the advice during the Swearing of oath of secrecy and the closing ceremony of a 10-day workshop in the Region on Monday at the Ghana Secondary Technical School.
“Enumerators and Supervisors should be circumspect in collating the necessary data required by government of Ghana for the success of the exercise and national development, he said.”
Adding, all enumerators should sacrifice for their motherland and never make all sacrifices go waste. The government has spent so much and the exercise should be the best in the Region.”
The representative for the enumeration training programme Mr. Michael Sackey underscore sitting arrangement, training materials as a major constrain like food during the training and called on authorities to avoid future occurrences.
“A group of 45 participants as a result of inadequate training materials had to use one Enumeration Area (E.A) map instead of one per participant” he said.
The Mayor of the Western Region described the forthcoming exercise as important since it is conducted in a decade and enumerators need to recognize it essence as development and planning of Ghana and not the enumeration at the end of the exercise.
He was of the view that the 10 years intervals set aside to conduct census should be looked at referencing Europe’s way of conducting census as every day.
“Figures for planning and budgeting are always estimated and government needs reliable figures for planning development. In Europe, reference point for census conducting is right when a child is born.”
The two-week exercise begins on Sunday, September 26, the Census Night but listing of housing begins on Tuesday.
The 2000 Population and Housing Census was the first time a full-scale housing census was conducted with a population census in one single operation aimed at updating the statistical information on the characteristics of the population of Ghana.
Ghana therefore has an estimated population of 24 million people. It homes more than 100 different ethnic groups and has not seen the kind of ethnic conflict that has created civil wars in many other African countries. The official language is English; however, most Ghanaians also speak at least one local language.
Population censuses have been conducted in Ghana at approximately ten-year intervals since 1891 except in 1941, when the series was interrupted as a result of World War II but was resumed in 1948.
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 organization, 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 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.
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