By Jones Anlimah
The Ghana National Household Registry is expected to begin its data collection exercise in the Volta region by the end of November 2022.
The exercise will involve the collection of socio-economic information from all households in the region.
At a training session to equip Regional and District Officers of the information services department in the Volta and Oti regions on the operational activities of the Registry, the Officer in charge of the Ghana National Household Registry, Dr Richard Adjetey said the exercise among other things ensure that pro-poor interventions reach its target groups.
It is the concern of the ministry of gender and social protection as part of their mandate to ensure that the right of vulnerable groups are thus linked to the provision of social protection interventions in the country.
This can however be done when there is credible and accurate data on such vulnerable groups. To this end the Ghana national household registry is embarking on a nationwide but regional-based data collection exercise. The registry has so far covered all the five regions of the north using the census approach.
The training workshop for regional and district officers of the information services department in the oti and volta regions was therefore to equip them and get them to understand the key roles they will play prior to and during the data collection exercise in the two regions.
The chief information officer Mr David Owusu Amoah said the department is gradually moving to towards adding value to enhance their operations as per their core mandate. He urged officers of the department to put their best strategies to complement what they would be trained at the workshop to be able to get the public to buy into the national exercise to make it a success.
“So even as the GNHR are here to educate us endeavour to inculcate whatever we are here for. Let us take everything we will be taught seriously such that when we go outside there, we break it down to simple is and was language. Use your own language for the understanding of the people in your community.” He said.
The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa was hopeful that participants will be able to provide accurate information on the exercise to the public to get their full and active cooperation to ensure its success.
The Director in Charge of Finance and Administration Directorate at the ministry of information mrs Patricia Dovi Sampson said the ISD plays a significant role in communicating and educating the public on Government’s policies and programmes and, with representation across the length and breadth of the country, the Department is well positioned to execute the mandate.
According to her Government is about to implement a Retooling Programme which will radically step-up the effectiveness and efficiency of the Department. She noted that the collaboration between the ISD and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection to undertake the national exercise constitutes one of the key priority programmes of Government.
“This exercise coming up in the Volta and Oti regions is a follow-up of a similar one ongoing in the Central Region. I wish to assure you that the ISD will play its’ part in educating and sensitizing the people of the Volta and Oti Regions to enhance awareness and encourage maximum participation in the household registration exercise. I urge the ISD to take this capacity-building session seriously so that at the end of the day, the purpose of this forum will be achieved.” She added.
The officer in charge of the Ghana national household registry, Dr. Richard Adjetey said the training was part of the public information campaign on the national exercise. He noted that 12 census districts are expected to be covered in the Volta region, while all Districts in the Oti region will be covered when the exercise begins in that region. The exercise according to him will among other things help the government to identify and prioritize households living in vulnerable conditions to ensure that specific and targeted social programs reach their intended targets.
“Census districts are district where the poverty rate is above 24.6% that is where we select them as census districts……In our data that we collect we have categorized them into three levels. We have the extremely poor, non-poor and the poor and that helps us in targeting most of our beneficiaries. You know at the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection, we have the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, the Ghana School Feeding Programme. Again, one thing about our data is the fact that it’s more matching. Matching in the sense that the data looks more into income and consumption levels so it’s more matching to vulnerability groups in the country.” He noted.
A total of not less that 700 Field Officers are expected to be deployed to embark on the exercise in the Volta and Oti regions.
