Ghana kicks off digital census

Ghana on Monday commenced its first fully digital national Housing and Population Census (PHC).

The initiative was deployed as the country looks to capture the exact number of people for national development.

According to Ghanaian authorities, the country’s population was estimated at 24.6 million.

The exercise was slated for 2020 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exercise was pushed forward till this year.

The Ghana Statistics Service (GSS), which confirmed the commencement of the digital initiative in a memo, said the government has arranged 67,419 field enumerators who would collect data across states in the country.

The GSS said the enumerators were commissioned to collect data on digital tablets within the country’s borders.

READ ASLO: Need to completely digitalize Nigeria’s population database

The Chief Government Statistician, Samuel Annim, said the enumerators would target persons traveling, persons in short-stay institutions such as health facilities, hotels, and prisons, and those considered homeless at their locations.

He said: “The counting that we do at GSS during a PHC is the snapshot of the population, and it is an all-inclusive exercise.”

The statistician urged people of the West African country to make themselves available for the exercise, saying the population numbers help government in planning the country’s socio-economic architecture.

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