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Ghana's 2010 Population and Housing Census to delay
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, Jan 5, Ghanadot - Ghana's 2010 Population and Housing
Census anticipated to take place in March, 2010 is likely to
delay.
This is due to the fact that the Census Secretariat under
the Ghana Statistical Service is now capturing and collating
data from the trial census organised in November, last year,
and a minimum period of one year is required to organise a
national census after a trial census has been organised.
Mr Francis Kojo Yankey, a member of the Census
Implementation Committee at the Census Secretariat, told the
Daily Graphic, a state media in Accra that the secretariat
was still in the process of capturing and collating data
from the trial census organised in November, 2009.
Mr Yankey, who was supported by a team of technical experts
from the Census Secretariat, however, stated that work on
the trial census would be facilitated to ensure that the
national census takes place within 2010 but he was definite
that the census could not be conducted in March, as
anticipated.
According to Mr Yankey, the secretariat needed time to
capture the data received from the field during the trial
census, saying that problems and lessons learnt from the
trial census would help to fine-tune the national census.
He said although Ghana normally organised its national
census, which captured the data of every person living
within the borders of the country at census night, in or
around March every 10 years, this year's census would delay
due to other factors such as the commencement of the African
Cup of Nations and the World Cup, which could affect the
seriousness of the census programme.
He said the secretariat was, however, awaiting a definite
date to be set by the National Census Steering Committee
headed by the Minister of Finance.
Mr Yankey said the secretariat would, however, continue to
organise publicity and educational activities on the census
to ensure that people knew what was expected of them when
the census finally begun.
As part of efforts to ensure that people kept abreast of the
census before it was normally rolled out, he said the
questionnaire would be made available on the Internet to
ensure that people had a fair idea of the questions to
expect.
He said three new areas on agriculture, Information
Communication Technology (ICT) and disability had been
introduced into the 2010 questionnaire for future use of
such data.
He said some of the normal questions that would appear on
the questionnaire would elicit information on age,
fertility, religious affiliation, as well as educational and
economic char-acteristics of people.
Mr Yankey said the census, which would also cover houses,
would capture all housing structures, including kiosks,
mosques, churches and school buildings in the country.
He said the secretariat had estimated to capture about 25
million people who would be residing within the country on
the day of the census.
He said his outfit was, therefore, going to recruit and
train between 55,000 and 62,000 people this year. Out of the
number who would be recruited, only 36,000 would be finally
engaged as enumerators and 9,000 as supervisors to undertake
the exercise.
As a way of making the work easy, Mr Yankey also said the
questionnaires would also be translated into the various
local languages to suit different populations.
He appealed to the general public to ensure that they left
behind their personal details to the household head where
they found themselves on the day of the census, since the
questionnaire would require the capturing of the
characteristics of everybody in the country.
On the issue of the three districts who refused to be part
of the trial census in the Brong Ahafo Region, Mr Yankey
said the problem had been resolved and called on all persons
who would find themselves in the country on the day of the
census to co-operate with the enumerators for a successful
exercise.
Ghanadot
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