In setting a model for African countries, the Republic of Ghana on Monday began the first, fully-digital national Housing and Population Census to capture the exact number of its population for better national development.
The country’s last census exercise was conducted in 2010, which put the number of the population at 24.6 million.
According to Ghana Statistics Service, there are 67,419 field enumerators deployed to collect data nationwide on digital tablets, within the borders of the West African country.
The Chief Government Statistician, Samuel Annim, said the enumerators would target persons traveling, persons in short-stay institutions such as health facilities, hotels, and prisons, and those considered homeless at their locations.
“The counting that we do at GSS during a PHC is the snapshot of the population, and it is an all-inclusive exercise,” the government statistician said.
The census would help in planning for various sectors of the country’s socio-economic architecture, Annim added.
According to the Field Operations Manager at GSS, Peter Peprah, the digital data collection marks a significant difference between the 2021 census and the previous ones.
“The digitisation will help us deliver results more promptly and accurately than we used to have with the paper and pen data collection in the past,’’ Pepra stated.
