Posts in category: Other News

Ghana has set a new cocoa production record with 1.033 million tonnes of beans for the 2020/2021 season.

This comes six weeks before the 2020/2021 cocoa season gets to a close, which means that the figure can still go up before the harvest period ends.

The previous record was 1.024 million tonnes which was recorded in the 2010/2011 season.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, announced this at a press conference in Accra yesterday.

Aside from announcing the new production figures, the press conference was also to introduce new electric weighing scales which have been procured by COCOBOD for the Licence Cocoa Buying Companies (LBCs).

He commended the hardworking cocoa farmers for the feat and said the achievement was also as a result of the support of the government and the determination of the management and staff of COCOBOD.

“Thanks to all stakeholders in the industry, we have been able to achieve this,” he stated.

Productivity enhancement

The chief executive also noted that the milestone was achieved due to the Productivity Enhancement Programme (PEP) which was introduced by the board.

Interventions under the PEP include rehabilitation of cocoa farms, mechanised pruning, fertiliser subsidy, mass spraying, artificial hand pollination, irrigation, distribution of cocoa seeds and continuous farmer education on good agronomic practices.

Through the PEP programme, Mr Aidoo said cocoa extension service was extended to all the regions.

“We also provided high quality and high yielding cocoa seeds to the farmers.

“Our research institute in Tafo also stepped up their activities and the quality control unit also did very well,” he stated.

Way forward

Mr Aidoo pointed out that looking at the trends, COCOBOD was confident that the prospects for the coming season would also be good.

He encouraged the farmers to continue to avail themselves of the various educational and sensitisation extended to them.

They should also continue implementing all the intervention programmes introduced by COCOBOD.

“If they do so, their farm productivity is going to change and they will continue to see improvements in their yields and better days will come,” the COCOBOD CEO stated.

Mr Aidoo said the achievement also placed a huge task and responsibility on COCOBOD to do better in coming seasons, assuring that “we want to sustain the achievements.”

New weighing scales

The new weighing scales will be used by the LBCs from Wednesday, September 1, this year when the new cocoa season begins.

The introduction of the new scale is to check illegal adjustments, which the CEO described as a pertinent issue in the industry.

Mr Aidoo said COCOBOD had already procured over 44,000 of the electronic weighing scales which would soon be distributed to the LBCs.

“We have worked on this together with the LBCs in total agreement to change the weighing scales from the manual to the electronic system. “We wanted the kind that can be used everywhere in the country. So we have procured both electronic and solar scales,” he said.

Mr Aidoo added that it would end the days when cocoa farmers felt cheated by LBCs whom they claimed adjusted their weighing scales.

He noted that the new electronic scales were recommended by the Ghana Standards Authority following a survey of the manual scales presently being used across the country.

“We take the issue of weighing scale tampering very seriously as we believe it has a negative impact on interventions that COCOBOD has put in place to improve the earnings and livelihoods of cocoa farmers,” Mr Aidoo said.

Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world, just behind Cote d‘Ivoire. Production in both countries accounts for more than 60 per cent of the volume of cocoa beans in the world.

Apart from the 2010/2011 cocoa season which saw the country produce one million tonnes of beans, the country’s production has ranged between 650,000 and 900,000 tonnes.

Cote d’Ivoire, the world’s leading cocoa producer, currently produces about two million tonnes.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

The University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) has agreed to suspend its strike, following an emergency meeting with the National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.

This is contained in a Memorandum of Agreement between the government and the UTAG, copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education, signed for the government while Professor Charles Ofosu Marfo, National President of UTAG, signed on behalf of the Association.

UTAG and the government in the Memorandum agreed to begin negotiations on the matter from Monday, August 23, 2021.

It also agreed that the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, in conjunction with the National Labour Commission, would take steps to discontinue all legal processes against UTAG while UTAG would also take steps to suspend the ongoing strike action.

The statement said the government acknowledged the need to improve the working conditions of University teachers and would treat the agreement with all the seriousness it deserved.

NLC secured the court injunction against UTAG’ s strike on August 2, arguing that the law barred UTAG from proceeding on the industrial action when negotiations were underway.

UTAG is demanding the implementation of a 2012 Single Spine package, which put entry-level lecturers on a salary of $2,084.

Source: GNA

The Ghana Health Service says it is updating the status of all persons who have been fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 disease in the country.

This has come as a result of challenges being faced by individuals, especially persons wanting to travel outside Ghana, to verify their vaccination status using the barcode at the back of their COVID-19 vaccination card.

This was contained in a statement signed and issued by the Director General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye on Thursday, August 5, 2021.

The GHS, as part of its COVID-19 vaccination data quality assurance process, set up a system of data validation for persons who have received a full dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The process includes placement of a registered metallic peel – hologram with security features – on the vaccination card as proof of full vaccination and a barcode to check vaccination status.

The GHS is however facing challenges with the system as some vaccinated individuals, especially those travelling outside Ghana, are unable to verify their vaccination status using the barcode.

The service has therefore set up a desk at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) for travellers to aid with their vaccination verification process.

“Fully vaccinated outbound travellers (i.e., travellers who have received two doses of AstraZeneca or Sputnik-V vaccine) departing from KIA should contact the Vaccination Verification Desk of the Port Health Unit at the Departure Hall of KIA to verify their vaccination status prior to departure,” the statement said.

It added that other fully vaccinated individuals desirous of verifying their vaccination status should visit the nearest health facility or District Health Directorate for assistance.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

Information available to Joy News indicates that COP Dr. George Akuffo Dampare will take over as the Inspector General of Police (IGP) from August 1, 2021.

He takes over from James Oppong-Boanuh, a lawyer and police officer, who was appointed to be the police boss by President Akufo-Addo in October 2019.

COP George Dampare until his appointment was the Director-General in charge of Administration at the Service.

COP Dr George Akuffo Dampare has been in the Ghana Police Service for close to 30 years.

He joined the service as a Constable and has risen to the highest rank of Commissioner of Police, becoming one of the youngest Police Officers to have attained this in recent years.

He has served in many leadership capacities in the Service including; Director General (Finance), Director General (Welfare), Director General (ICT), Commandant of the Police Command and Staff College, and Accra Region Police Commander. He is currently the Director-General (Operations) of the Service.

COP Dr. Akuffo Dampare became a chartered accountant at the age of 25 while serving as a Police Constable and currently holds a PhD in Finance.

He has been an Adjunct Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and at the University Of Cape Coast in Ghana.

Amongst his credentials; George Akuffo Dampare (PhD) was a Special Assistant to the Regional Commander, United Nations Mission in Bosnia Herzegovina, Municipal Police Commander, Cape Coast, ADC to the Vice President of Ghana, Accountant/Finance Officer, Ghana Police Service and the Head of Police and Narcotics Desk at the Ministry of Interior.

He has been credited for his lead role in the swift arrest of the alleged killer of former Abuakwa North MP, J.B. Danquah.

Source: Myjoyonline.com.

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has, for the second time, extended the mop-up enumeration exercise for the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC).

To last for 12 days (July 19 – 30), the latest extension is to allow the GSS to exhaust the remaining six per cent of households that are yet to be covered in the exercise in some parts of the country.

The 2021 PHC, which started on Monday, June 28 in all 16 regions, was expected to end on Sunday, July 11, 2021, but the GSS extended the deadline to Sunday, July 18.

According to the GSS, the move was to ensure that all persons in the country were reached and counted.

Coverage

At a press briefing in Accra on Monday, July 19, the Government Statistician, Prof. Kobina Annim, said at the end of the initial mop-up exercise, 94 per cent of the listed households were enumerated, leaving a backlog of six per cent to be cleared.

He indicated that in line with the GSS’s principle of leaving no one uncounted, the service gave a second window to ensure that everyone was counted to get reliable data on the country.

Prof. Annim added that as of Sunday, July 18, the data collected showed that apart from the Greater Accra Region where 75 per cent of the households had been enumerated, all the other regions exceeded 90 per cent enumeration status.

Prioritised MMDAs

He said 25 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) had been identified as priority areas for the next phase of the mop-up exercise because they hosted most of the remaining six per cent of persons yet to be enumerated.

The MMDAs are located in the Greater Accra, Central, Western, Eastern and Volta regions.

“The identification of these selected areas for the extension and the accompanying duration are driven by a number of factors including calls received by persons in Ghana on their status and experience of the enumeration, departure from benchmark indicators, assessment of the coverage and quality of data received so far,” he said.

Challenges

The Government Statistician added that the enumeration could not be completed in some of the areas, particularly in the Greater Accra Region, because those were fast-growing areas.

Additionally, he said some respondents were unwilling to participate in the exercise for various reasons while the enumerator also faced challenges such as motor accidents, snakebites and dogs attacks.

Although some of the challenges delayed the completion of the enumeration exercise as scheduled, he said the GSS was focused on reaching all the six per cent of outstanding households by the July 30 extension period.

Responding to a question on what the implication of the extension of the exercise was on the PHC budget, he said adequate provision had been made for the mop-up exercise so the GSS was confident that it would complete the exercise within the stipulated budget.

Quality assurance

Prof. Annim said the GSS had instituted spot checks in enumeration areas to get individuals who had not been enumerated to call and be captured.

The move, he said, was part of measures to be sure that quality work had been done by the field officers.

“In the process of spot-checking, verification and validations are done at three levels – listing of all structures, covering of all households in structures and counting of all members in the household,” he said.

He said the GSS had also instituted physical visits to selected households for the purpose of verifying information collected by its field officers.

“These visits will be done by field monitors who will be wearing field monitors’ jackets, branded with 2021 PHC and GSS logos and carrying photo ID,”  he added.

Furthermore, Prof. Annim said as part of the quality assurance process, the GSS had instituted outboard calls to selected members of the public seeking to verify and validate information collected by the field officers.

The GSS boss assured members of the public who were yet to be enumerated that they would not be left out of the exercise.

He also appealed to members of the public who were unwilling to participate in the enumeration exercise to cooperate with enumerators by allowing themselves to be counted.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) Sunday started the actual enumeration of people, starting with those in transit.

Enumerators in the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) visited various places to count people in homeless households in makeshift structures and open spaces, described as “outside sleepers”, people who were in transit, those at transport terminals, those who were spending short stays in institutions such as hotels and guest houses and hospitals.

The Census Night, defined as the period between 6 p.m. yesterday and 6 a.m. this morning, saw more than 60,000 enumerators across the country spending the night counting the eligible class of people.

Sunday, the counting of people in big hospitals and hotels had started across the country, the Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, told the Daily Graphic.

He said in the hotels, forms would also be left to be filled by guests who were not available to complete them.

For the outside sleepers, the target of the enumerators was to count almost all, but the officers, who wore reflective blue jackets, carried ID cards and adhered to all COVID-19 protocols, would return to the places for a mop-up.

“Enumerators will leave call-back cards at residences where no one is at home to answer questions. All are urged to use the call-back cards to schedule a convenient time that enumerators can return,” Prof. Annim stated.

He said to avoid double counting during the exercise, all persons enumerated last night would be given a ‘certificates of enumeration’.

Briefing

Earlier, at a press briefing yesterday, the Government Statistician had explained that last night’s exercise was restricted to the short stay and homeless households, with the counting and enumeration of people in households and long-stay institutions starting from today until Sunday, July 11, this year.

Prof. Annim said no one was required to travel or move to a specific place just to be enumerated, stressing that “all people should go about their normal business as usual.”

He indicated that an adult member of a household/institution could answer the questions on behalf of other members.

The Government Statistician, who was at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle himself for the enumeration exercise, thanked the public for their cooperation during the listing exercise and said the service was counting on same support for the enumeration.

Readiness

Prof. Annim said 98.3 per cent of the expected number of structures had been chalked and listed as of the end of the 11th day of the 2021 PHC.

What was left included pockets of structures at places such as Ledzokuku (Teshie), Krowor (Nungua), the Kassena Nankana Municipality, Talensi and Bolgatanga East due to refusals as a result of boundary disputes.

Prof. Annim mentioned other contributory factors such as the absence of structure residents or owners when enumerators visited, large sizes of enumeration areas and rapidly expanding localities, but gave an assurance that the chalking of all remaining structures would be completed before the start of enumeration this morning.

Monitors

Meanwhile, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has deployed 40 population experts from the international community to monitor the PHC.

The Country Representative of the UNFPA, Mr Niyi Ojuolape, who confirmed this to the Daily Graphic yesterday, said the deployment was in response to the government’s request for the UNFPA to implement the peer monitoring of the 2021 PHC.

He said the purpose of the monitoring exercise was to observe and report on the training and data collection procedures viz-a-viz international standards and best practices that could be replicated elsewhere on the African continent, with documented lessons learned.

He said the monitoring was also predicated on the need to closely monitor and provide objective assessment and feedback on the impact of the extensive use of new methodologies and technologies (innovations) on the quality of enumeration and share the experiences and best practices with other countries through South-South cooperation.

Mr Ojuolape said the independent monitoring of census exercises had gained currency, especially in the last two census rounds.

He said more developing countries and experts were requesting to be involved in the initiative, as it also facilitated knowledge gathering and experience sharing.

“The ultimate report will be used to share knowledge, experiences and best practices with other countries through UNFPA-led South-South cooperation. Population censuses have been conducted in Ghana at approximately 10-year intervals since 1891, the last being in 2010,” Mr Ojuolape said.

He said the inclusion of people from other countries would enable the process to be truly independent.

“Additionally, the independent monitoring process will benefit from skills and experiences from other parts that may be lacking within the Ghanaian context. Then, again, the inclusion of international citizens from developing countries enhances South-South exchanges,” he said.

Technology

The UNFPA Country Representative said all previous censuses, including those conducted post-independence, had been manually conducted with paper-based questionnaire.

Mr Ojuolape said for the first time ever, the PHC would be done using a fully digital modality.

“The modality utilises the Computer-Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) method, which involves the use of tablets for data collection. While the use of technology allows for a more efficient data collection and analysing process, there are still calls to strengthen quality assurance of data collected,” he added.

Innovation

Mr Ojuolape said to facilitate the census, several innovative and unique features had been introduced in the 2021 PHC that would enable the collection of quality and policy-relevant data and ensure rapid release of user-friendly results.

He said aside from the deployment of the independent observers, the UNFPA had supported the GSS with an international consultant who had been providing technical assistance for the census process since 2019.

Enumerators can be identified by their attire – they are in reflective blue jackets and white caps emblazoned with the 2021 PHC logo.

They are required to present photo IDs when they visit.

Respondents with concerns about an enumerator should call the toll-free call centre on 0800-426-426.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

Ghana has been ranked the second most peaceful country in Africa in the 2021 Global Peace Index report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).

The IEP is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to shifting the world’s focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress.

A look at the snapshot of the global state of peace as captured in the report, Ghana is ranked 38th in the world out of the 163 countries reviewed. Ghana scored 1.715 which represents a two point move upwards from the previous Global Peace Index report.

Other African rankings

Mauritius, the only African country ahead of Ghana in the Peace index on the first position in Africa ranked 28th in the global space. Botswana took third place in Africa and was ranked 41st on the global peace index.

Iceland is ranked number one as the most peaceful country in the world with a score of 1.1. New Zealand, Denmark, Portugal, and Slovenia are ranked second, third, fourth, and fifth respectively.

Least peaceful countries

The five least peaceful countries in the world, according to the 2021 global peace index are Iraq (ranked 159th), South Sudan (ranked 160th), Syria (ranked 161st) Yemen (ranked 162nd) and Afghanistan (at the bottom ranking163rd)

Covid-19 impact on peace

As part of the key findings of the 2021 Global Peace Index, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has wreaked massive economic havoc around the world also had “a significant impact on levels of conflict and violence”. The level of civil unrest the report says “rose in 2020, fuelled in large part by responses to coronavirus restrictions”. Over 5,000 pandemic-related violent events were recorded between January 2020 and April 2021 worldwide.

“The deterioration in militarization and improvement in ongoing conflict were both influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a major negative impact on economic activity, human movement, and international relations in 2020. The pandemic had a noticeable impact on the violent demonstrations and political instability indicators, with 25 and 46 countries respectively recording deterioration on these indicators,” the report further highlighted.

Global peace deterioration

According to the Index, “the average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.07 per cent in the 2021 Global Peace Index. Although a relatively small deterioration, this is the ninth time in the last 13 years that global peacefulness has deteriorated”.

The report notes that “in the past year, 87 countries recorded an improvement in peacefulness, while 73 countries recorded a deterioration. Three countries recorded no change in their overall score. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region remained the world’s least peaceful region. It is home to three of the five least peaceful countries in the world. However, it recorded the largest regional improvement over the past year”.

Europe the report says “remains the most peaceful region in the world. The region is home to eight of the ten most peaceful countries, and no country in Europe is ranked outside the top half of the index”.

The GPI and IEP

The 2021 Global Index report is the 15th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness.

The report presents the most comprehensive data driven analysis to-date on trends in peace, its economic value, and how to develop peaceful societies.

The GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace across three domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security, the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict, and the degree of Militarization.

IEP achieves its goals by developing new conceptual frameworks to define peacefulness; providing metrics for measuring peace; and uncovering the relationships between business, peace and prosperity as well as promoting a better understanding of the cultural, economic and political factors that create peace.

IEP is headquartered in Sydney, with offices in New York, The Hague, Mexico City, Brussels and Harare. It works with a wide range of partners internationally and collaborates with intergovernmental organizations on measuring and communicating the economic value of peace.

Source: Myjoyonline.com

The Ghana Police Service has said it is on a high alert following reports that suspected bandits are planning to attack communities in northern Ghana, especially those along the border with Burkina Faso.

A police wireless message last Tuesday said: “Reports indicate that Burkina Faso-based bandits are allegedly launching attacks in communities along the Burkina Faso-Ghana border.”

Consequently, the police administration has directed all police commanders in the country to increase patrols to quell the planned attacks.

Wireless Message

Portions of the wireless message, sent to all regional police commanders to be on high alert, read: “The Burkina Faso-based bandits are allegedly planning to launch attacks within the Bolgatanga township and its environs, including areas in Tamale, in the coming days..

“The bandits are suspected to be in possession of military-grade weapons and may have already infiltrated Ghana at yet-to-be-identified locations in the northern regions and they are poised to launch attacks any moment from now.”

The message also said that already several attacks had happened in recent months at the border.

Upper East responds

In response to the directives from the police administration, the Upper East Regional Security Council (REGSEC) has increased surveillance in some communities in the region.

Consequently, residents of the region have been urged to be vigilant and report to the various security agencies all suspicious strangers who will come into their communities, hotels, guest houses and other hospitality facilities.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Stephen Yakubu, who is also the Chairman of the REGSEC, stated this in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Bolgatanga yesterday.

Although Mr Yakubu did not explain the strategies that had been put in place for security reasons, he indicated that routinely the security services had been conducting patrols along the border, considering that the region’s topography was one of “long stretch land with porous borders, hence the need to close those gaps.”

He admitted that the region’s closeness to neighbouring countries in the West African subregion that were having some challenges had made it imperative for the security agencies in the region to always be on guard against such criminal elements.

That, he explained, was intended to stop them before they caused any harm to society, giving an assurance that “the situation is under control because we have always been ready and so the region is very secure.”

The regional minister further indicated that the region had its military base, as well as other security agencies that could combine forces to nip in the bud any attacks, but stressed that it was equally important for the citizenry to also volunteer “critical information” to support the efforts of the REGSEC.

High alert at borders

The high alert directive from the Ghana Police Service is the second of such directive in as many months.

Last April, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) triggered a high alert directive at Ghana’s land borders, warning of a possible invasion by some 1,800 Nigerian prisoners who had broken out of jail on Monday, April 5, 2021.

In a wireless message, the Comptroller-General of the GIS, Laud O. Affrifah, had directed all controls to inform their officers on the ground to be on high alert following the escape of those prisoners.

The GIS also advised residents of border communities to be cautious in dealing with strangers and visitors who tried to get into Ghana through the borders.

Borders closed

Officially, Ghana’s land borders have remained closed since March 2020 when the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, gave the directive as part of efforts to stop the importation of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) into Ghana and also curb its spread.

In September 2020, the airports were reopened, but the land borders remain closed.

However, the porous nature of the borders and the number of unapproved routes at those borders have posed a challenge to security men who are to ensure that the directive is enforced.

Source: Graphic.com.gh

Ghana will become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council from January 1, 2022 until December 31, 2023.

A statement issued by the Foreign Ministry Friday, sighted by Myjoyonline.com, indicated that this follows Ghana’s election to the Council by the General Assembly of the UN to serve the two-year term.

According to the statement, Ghana secured 185 votes out of 190 votes cast during the election.

“Ghana obtained the highest number of votes compared to the four other Member States that were elected, further cementing Ghana’s high standing in the comity of Nations,” it explained

Other nations voted to serve non-permanent roles on the UN Security Council include the United Arab Emirates, Albania, Brazil and Gabon.

In the statement, the Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway expressed the country’s expectation to, “work closely with all the new members of the Council when Ghana’s tenure commences in January 2022.” 

The Foreign Minister further vowed, “to work assiduously to assist in addressing the conflicts on the continent and sustain the peace the people of Africa need.”

She added that, “Ghana will also use her tenure on the Security Council to seek for a stronger and deeper collaboration and cooperation between the United Nations and regional bodies in a manner that enhances complementarity and ensures effectiveness of coordinated action.”

About the UN Security Council

Every year, five countries are elected to the 15-member Council as non-permanent members for a two-year term, according to a geographical rotation set by the General Assembly in 1963, to ensure fair regional representation: five from African and Asian and Pacific States; one from Eastern Europe; two from Latin American States; and two from Western European and Other States (WEOG).

Source: Myjoyonline.com

Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician and Chief Census Officer, says the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) is fully prepared to ensure the successful conduct of the 2021 Population and Housing Census.

In a speech read on his behalf in Tamale at the launch of the first digital district 30 days 2021 PHC Night, Professor Annim identified key areas for the exercise to include 131,739 localities, 51,916 enumeration areas, 11,020 supervisory areas in the 260 districts and 16 regions in the country.

He indicated that 75,000 tablets were made available for the enumerators to aid their operations and noted that there would be the use of interactive maps to facilitate effective deployment of field personnel to avoid duplications or gaps in the listing of structures and enumeration of persons.

He urged Ghanaians to have faith in the exercise and avail themselves to be counted in the third Population and Housing Census (PHC) data collection, scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2021.

Alhaji Shani Alhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, said “information on population growth dynamics is important and highly needed by the government to plan for educational needs, where to locate health facilities, how to allocate the social expenditures and identify those who need help in the society”.

Mr Gilbert B. Nuuri-Teg, Tamale Metropolitan Coordinating Director, appealed to the public to cooperate fully with the staff of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to make the exercise a success.

He said the PHC exercise would collect information on every structure, household and individual to provide reliable and disaggregated data to the lowest of administration and geography, including rural and urban differentiation.

Mr Nuuri-Teg said Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) would fully support the census exercise to address the various data gaps needed for effective planning of strictured programmes at the district level to promote development.

The PHC exercise is to achieve complete coverage of all structures and persons in Ghana, which is in line with the “leave no one behind” agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It would provide updated demographic, socio-economic and housing data to support development and decision-making as well as the tracking of global, regional, and national development goals.

Source: GNA