Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician
•Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim has denied bloating the cost of the 2021 census
•The census is expected to start on Sunday, June 27, 2021
•The exercise is meant to generate data that is useful for government’s decision making
Government statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, has said his outfit has not bloated the cost involved in the 2021 Population and Housing Census, Citi News has reported.
According to him, his outfit’s intended activities over the period of the census justify the over GH¢520 million budget for the exercise.
Already the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has started the exercise by listing houses that form part of the census.
The full-blown human headcount which has been declared as the Census Night will however start on Sunday, June 27, 2021.
Addressing MPs on the exercise, Prof. Annim insisted that the cost of the 2021 Population and Housing Census is not bloated.
“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) GH¢2,520, and for each supervisor, over the same period, each person is being paid GH¢2,940.
“A simple calculation of this shows that it takes more than two-fifths of the allocated sum. And for the first time, we are doing a digital census.
“So ahead of the census training, we’ve procured 76,500 tablets. These tablets, if you go around the market, [have a unit] cost of $170 or GH¢1,200. This again consumes more than one-fifth of the cost. So clearly, those claims of bloated cost cannot be true just by this calculation,” he is quoted to have said.
About the 2021 census
The Ghana Statistical Service 2021 population and housing census will begin on June 27, 2021, and run till July 11, 2021.
The exercise is meant to generate data that useful in decision-making and development planning.