The Ghana Statistical Service has scheduled an initial mop-up for the 2021 Population and Housing Census from July 12 to July 18.
At a press conference on Sunday, the government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, assured that “no one will be left behind.”
The census was initially set to begin on March 15, 2020, with the first two weeks expected to be used for listing, a process that comprises the zoning and coding of the number of houses and structures to be covered in the census.
However, it was rescheduled to June 28, 2020, before being postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Giving updates on the process so far, Prof. Annim said data from 80 percent of expected households had been collected as of July 9.
“Also from this 80 percent we have received, from the 16 regions, we have had data from 12 out of the 16 regions,” he noted.
The North East had the highest expected households recorded with 92 percent.
The Greater Accra Region had the lowest expected households recorded with 55 percent.
“Indeed all regions, except the Greater Accra Regions, we’ve received data on 70 percent that we collected data from during the first phase of the exercise,” Prof. Annim said.
Of the 272 statistical districts outlined by the Ghana Statistical Service, 181 are on course to complete data collection as of July 11.
“Our concern is to focus on Greater Accra Region because we have some specific districts in the Greater Accra Region where data inflow is very minimal,” he said.
Among the lowest-performing districts are the Ga West, Ga North, Ayawaso West, Adentan Ga East, Ledzokuku, La Nkwantan Madina, Kpone Katamanso, Shai Osudoku, and Tema West districts.
The service has attributed this to the reluctance of households to participate in the data collection, “specifically diplomats, foreigners in gated communities, high-level government officials and political leaders, households in medium to high-class residential areas.”
He also said there was an “unwillingness of communities to participate in the census due to boundary disputes.”
