The Upper West Regional Statistician, Mr Jeremiah Sixtus Dery has asked for cooperation from Ghanaians during the listing and enumeration of households and persons in the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) across the country.

The exercise which would commence in earnest on June 13 with the listing of household,s would mark the beginning of official head count of all persons and structures including details on other socio demographic characteristics that would form a data base for the next 10 years to inform various policydecisions by government and other development agents.

It will make use of over 7,500 field officers who would be recruited across the16 regions of the country  to gather information on various households and houses in the country.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the training of 262 Prospective Regional Trainers (RTs) for the census at Wa on Tuesday, Mr Dery indicated that the credibility of the exercise relied heavily on the cooperation of the public who would be enumerated by the field officers.

“We have no doubt about the competenceof the field officers we will be sending to the various enumeration areas and we pray that they get the much neededreliabledata from the public that we seek to capture”, he stated.

He added that the GSS was still employing other avenues such as religious organisations, the media and the information services to sensitise the public to the need to volunteer credible information for the success of the exercise.

Speaking on behalf of the Government Statistician, a Curriculum Reviewer for the 2021 PHC, Pofessor Paul Nkegbe commended the prospective RTs for their commitment and dedication towards the processes leading to the final enumeration.

He saidd that the GSS was anticipating that the regional trainers passed on similar competence, dedication and diligence to the enumerators who would be receiving training from the RTs before they commenced their field work.

The 2021 PHC which marks the third population and housing census in Ghana after independence  would target every individual in the country including new born babies and the aged.

Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa