Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician, has dismissed allegations that the cost of the 2021 Population and Housing Census is excessive.
According to him, the exercise’s expenditure of more than GHS520 million is required and within all authorized benchmarks.
Houses started being listed as part of the census nine days ago, with the full rollout of the exercise set to commence on June 27, 2021, which has been designated as Census Night.
Prof. Annim, speaking to MPs on the census, broke down the costs of the various components and gave financial justifications.
“We have over 70,000 enumerators and supervisors made up of 58,000 enumerators and 12,000 supervisors. We are paying each enumerator over the period (June 13 to July 11, 2021) GHS2,520, and for each supervisor, over the same period, each person is being paid GHS2,940. A simple calculation of this shows that it takes more than two-fifths of the allocated sum.”
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“We’re also conducting a digital census for the first time. We’ve ordered 76,500 iPads in advance of the census training. If you look around the market, these pills cost $170 or GHS1,200 each unit. This takes up more than a quarter of the budget. So, based on this computation, such allegations of exorbitant costs cannot be true.”
About 2021 census
The 2021 population and housing census will commence on June 27, 2021.
The exercise, which will go through July 11, 2021, is designed to produce data for use in decision-making and planning for the country’s and people’ growth.
Listing of structures
The Ghana Statistical Service is now numbering several buildings throughout the country.
GSS claims that in the last six days, it has been able to count about 70% of the country’s estimated 11 million buildings.
This is part of the first phase of the 2021 Population and Housing Census, according to Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim.
“The exercise is in two phases. The first phase is what we are currently doing and the essence of doing that exercise is to achieve our primary objective of the census undertaking which has to do with comprehensive and complete coverage. So ahead of the enumeration exercise, we combed around the country to ensure that structures at different levels of completion are chalked and listed,” he said at a press briefing on Sunday, June 20, 2021.
Source: CITINEWSROOM
