The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has inaugurated an eight-member Regional Census Implementation committee in the Bono Region to see to the successful execution of the 2020 Population and Housing Census.
The Committee comprises of the Chief Director of the Bono RCC and the Bono Regional Directors of the Statistical Service, Ghana Health Service, Information Services Department, GES, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and a Representative from the Bono Regional House of Chiefs.
The Ghana Statistical Service is expected to conduct the sixth post-independence Population Census in March 2020.
According to the Statistical Service, the Census, will be unique in its adoption of digital and computer-assisted personal interviews that will make it a paperless exercise.
Government Statistician, Emmanuel George Osei, said significant progress has been made towards a successful Census.
Three main national-level committees made up of the National Census Steering, Technical Advisory and Publicity and Education Committees have been formed and inaugurated.
He said, questionnaires and manuals for data collection have also been prepared and tested.
More than sixty thousand field workers are expected to be recruited and trained for the execution of the exercise.
Inaugurating the committee, the Deputy Bono Regional Minister, Siaka Stevens said the country has undergone changes in population distribution and settlement patterns in many areas due to the creation of new regions and districts.
He said, the United Nations recommends that every country undertakes a Population Census every ten years. Ghana has successfully conducted five censuses since independence in 1957 with the last conducted in 2010.
Mr. Stevens noted that data to be generated from next year’s (2020) Census can be used to track progress of poverty reduction programmes and other core targets of the economy that will facilitate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
