Dr John Kumah, Deputy Minister of Finance, has charged the Board of Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to continue to offer leadership in the provision of high-quality statistics for national development.

The Deputy Minister said the country depended heavily on the Service to generate accurate and timely data to report on the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union Agenda 2063.

Dr Kumah said this in Accra at the inauguration of a seven-member board of GSS to manage the affairs of the Service in producing quality data as outlined in the Coordinated Programme for Economic and Social Development Policies.

The inauguration is in accordance with Section 5 (2) of the Statistical Service Act, 2019: Act 1003 which mandates the President of the Republic, in consultation with the Council of State to appoint the governing board of the Service.

“We further believe that your tenure of office will bring significant improvement to the field of data production for national development.”

He commended the Service for embarking on the Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey to provide the country with data on quarterly Labour Force, Quarterly Multidimensional Poverty and Vulnerability Status.

That, he stated, would give feedback to policy making, academia and research whether the country’s programmes and policies were impacting positively on the populace.

“As a government, we need to know the outcome of the various government policies and we shall support the Service to re-tool to achieve its core mandate of providing quality, relevant, accurate and timely statistics,” he stated.

The board members among others, are to work towards expanding the establishment post of the Service by ensuring that experienced Senior officers lead the production of statistics, supervise the preparation of a suited scheme of Service, and guide the conduct of all the censuses and surveys outlined in the Harmonizing and Improving Statistics in West Africa Project for the next three years.

He said the Government through the World Bank, provided the Statistical Service an amount of $150 million for the conduct of the census and to harmonize and strengthen data collection systems in Ghana and seven West African Countries.

He entreated the Service to ensure the efficient use of the remaining resources as other initiatives were explored to financially strengthen the Service.

Dr Grace Bediako, the Chairperson, GSS board, thanked the Government for the confidence reposed in them and pledged to work collectively to achieve the mandate assigned them.

She pledged to support the Service to provide quality data for decision making and promised to work to raise the institution to greater heights.

The rest of the board members are Professor Samuel Annim, Government Statistician, Ms Hannah Ashiokai Akrong, Human Resource Director, Vodafone Ghana, Dr Evans Aggrey Darko, Chief Director, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Josephine Dzahene-Quaishie, Director, Confucius Institute, Legon, and Mr Philip Abradu-Otoo, Director of Research, Bank of Ghana.