By Francis Ntow
Accra, July 7, GNA – The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has standardised commonly used non-standard market units, including basins, bundles and olonka, into exact metric weights for the first time.
The initiative is expected to improve the accuracy of agricultural produce measurement, strengthen Consumer Price Index (CPI) and food inflation estimates, and promote consistency in market price data nationwide.
Dr Alhassan Iddrisu, Government Statistician, announced this at the launch of the maiden Non-Standard Units Survey (NSUS) in Accra on Tuesday, describing the initiative as a major step towards more reliable national statistics.
He said non-standard units had long shaped the buying and selling of food in Ghana but had never been standardised, resulting in inconsistencies in transactions and distortions in national data.
Dr Iddrisu said although Ghana adopted the metric system in September 1975 under the Weights and Measures Act, 1975 (NRCD 326), and reaffirmed the need for standardisation in the National Trade Policy, 2017, the country had yet to fully achieve that objective.
He explained that while non-standard units were widely used across the country, the same unit often represented different weights in different regions.
“A tomato tin, for instance, varied significantly in weight from one region to another, while an olonka of dried white maize converted nationally to 2.55 kilogrammes,” he said.
Dr Iddrisu said the survey found that cabbage sold per head ranged from 0.42 kilogrammes for a small size to 1.2 kilogrammes for a large one, while bundles of cocoyam leaves (kontomire) weighed between 0.21 kilogrammes and 0.71 kilogrammes, depending on size.
In contrast, bottled commodities such as palm oil recorded relatively consistent conversion factors across regions.
At the farm gate, he said yam packets weighed between 3.71 kilogrammes for small sizes and 14.7 kilogrammes for large sizes, while tomatoes averaged 3.18 kilogrammes nationally, ranging from 4.12 kilogrammes in the North East Region to 3.5 kilogrammes in other areas.
Cocoa beans in bags weighed between 4.36 kilogrammes and 8.58 kilogrammes, with the Savannah Zone recording the highest weights.
Dr Iddrisu said the findings showed that non-standard units remained deeply embedded in Ghana’s statistical systems, with variations largely influenced by container size and packing practices.
He said the survey had enabled the GSS to develop national conversion factors for major commodities for the first time.
Dr Iddrisu said the Service would integrate the conversion factors into the CPI, agricultural and household surveys, develop a digital national database and photo library of standard measurements, and regularly update local measurement units to improve data quality.
The survey covered 261 markets selected from a sampling frame of 1,490 markets identified through the 2023 Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES), with non-standard units classified into small, medium and large categories.
The household component covered 1,375 enumeration areas, comprising 441 urban and 934 rural areas, with 10 households sampled in each area.
The farm gate component sampled up to three farmers per crop nationwide.
Dr Iddrisu recommended the adoption of the standardised conversion factors across markets and farm gates to reduce regional inconsistencies.
He said the GSS would institutionalise their use in the compilation of the Consumer Price Index and other statistical surveys.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
Reporter: Francis Ntow