Professor Samuel Kobina Annim
Government Statistician has told Ghanaians not to travel for the purpose of getting counted.
Professor Samuel Kobina Annim said the system to undertake the exercise is so robust that everybody will be counted so far as they spend the night of June 27, 2021 through to Sunday, July 11 in Ghana.
“In the last 24 hours there has been a social media communication that suggests that people need to travel for purposes of the census,” he noted on Sunday, June 27 during a short ceremony in Accra to mark the census night.
“Census undertaken is really at the convenience of our respondents,” he stressed.
Prof Annim underscored one cardinal principle of the ongoing census which is to count once at the right place and at the right time.
“We are not asking anybody to travel for purposes of counting,” he advised.
He said the census will therefore produce numbers not only from the perspective of visitors to Ghana but also usual Ghanaians in the 16 regions.
The theme for this year’s census is ‘You count. . .get counted!’.
The Government Statistician urged Ghanaians to cooperate with the enumerators as missing such an exercise will take another decade for one to be counted.
This comes in the wake of resistance by some persons to the exercise, which began with the listing and chalking of households.
He mentioned Bolgatanga, Bongo, Talensi, Krowor, Ledzokuku and Adentan as areas where the exercise is to take full force, as a result of boundary disputes and skepticism on the part of residents.
“The 2021 Population and Housing Census is an all-inclusive activity and what that means is that it is a national activity, it is a non-partisan activity, it’s non-discriminatory irrespective of your religious affiliation, irrespective of your ethnic background, irrespective of all your demographic characteristics, education, whether a Ghanaian or otherwise.”