Bolgatanga, June 26, GNA – All is set for the 2021 Population and Housing Census to take place in all the 15 Municipalities and Districts of the Upper East Region, Mr Felix Geli, the Regional Statistician has said.
He explained that all the trainings for field officers enumerators have been completed while all logistics and monetary items needed for the Census Night and the actual enumeration had been sent to the various Municipalities and Districts.
The Regional Statistician, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Bolgatanga, indicated that arrangements had been made including making available personnel who would distribute enumeration forms to persons lodging at guest houses and institutions and those in transit to complete.
Mr Geli said the region had 2,500 Enumeration Areas and as at June 25, 2021, 2,464 Enumerations Areas had been covered under the structure listing exercise.
“Now, we are doing the listing exercise where the various field officers visit the areas assigned to them and assign serial numbers to houses and households and we do this to ensure that every area is covered especially during the exercise,” he said.
The Regional Statistician, however, noted that 36 enumeration areas were yet to be listed due to some challenges over land ownership and names.
He said, “We are facing a lot of challenges in this region where there are disputes over certain localities. For instance, at Kandiga in the Kassena-Nankana West District, apart from the disputes over land, one party is proposing for the name of a certain area to be changed while another party is also insisting otherwise. We also have another between Talensi and Bolgatanga East.”
Mr Geli revealed that there had been stakeholder engagements with the involvement of the parties affected, to find amicable and lasting solutions to the problems.
The Regional Statistician noted that accurate data from the Census was very critical to the development planning strategy of the country.
He said the data gathered would inform government and other stakeholders including the private sector and Non-Governmental Organizations, to formulate policies, programmes and intervention that would contribute to address the challenges of the country’s development and help reduce poverty and improve the standard of living of the citizens.
He urged members of the public to cooperate with the Census officials and provide them with accurate data to ensure that the information from the exercise could be used effectively for evidence-based development.
GNA