The Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, has urged Ghanaians to give accurate and detailed information to enumerators in the ongoing population and housing census.

According to the legislator, the exercise is crucial as it seeks to provide comprehensive statistical data for national development.

He said this in an interview with the media after going through the registration process in his constituency [Tamale South] where he urged residents in the Northern Region to cooperate with enumeration officials.

“I am just calling on every Ghanaian to be counted and to provide accurate and detailed information that allows us to have clarity of our spatial distribution and get some geographic data for social and economic advancement”, he said.

“So I am appealing to all of us to cooperate with them so that we can have a successful 2020/2021 census because we all know why it was delayed from last year. So we have to ensure that this successful to provide us with the information that we need for planning.”

The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, has assured that data taken from respondents will be protected.

“We will be doing this exercise on an average of 45 minutes period, and that is what we do generally. But what I want to emphasize is the confidentiality and the assurance to provide us with the information that it is just for statistical purposes, and we will not identify individuals in the data collection, and this is referenced in our Statistical Act 1003 that was passed in 2019.”

‘Cooperate with census officials; they are doing a sensitive job’ – Nana Addo to Ghanaians
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had earlier also asked all Ghanaians to cooperate with census officials who will visit their homes for the 2021 Population and Housing Census.

The President said without the needed cooperation, the exercise will not achieve the intended purpose.

Speaking to journalists at his Nima residence after being counted with his household by officials of the Ghana Statistical Service, Nana Akufo-Addo called for an end to all forms of attacks against census officials.

He urged the entire citizenry to participate and support the Ghana Statistical Service to carry out a successful exercise.

He explained that information from the exercise will enable the government to plan adequately for development.

“The 2021 Population and Housing Census is an extremely important exercise, so I am appealing to all Ghanaians to cooperate with the enumerators and the census officials. They are doing an exceptionally important and sensitive job, and they need the cooperation of each one of us to support them.”

About the exercise
Ghana’s last census was held in 2010.

The 2021 population and housing census, which will run till July 11, 2021, is meant to generate data that will be used in decision-making and planning for the development of the country.