THE Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, has urged regional and district census implementation committees to ensure that resources that would be allocated to them for the programme would be put to judicious use.
He said the effective management of such resources would ensure the successful execution of the programme, funded by both the government and its development partners.
"For us to continue to enjoy the support of stakeholders, including our development partners, the committee should ensure accountability and judicious use of resources that we will receive," Mr Ampofo stated.
The regional minister made the call when he joined the Government Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako, to inaugurate 13-member census regional and district implementation committees in the region in Koforidua last Thursday.
The committee, comprising directors of relevant institutions, is being chaired by the Eastern Regional Co-ordinating Director, Mr Samuel Bawah.
The establishment of the committees, which formed part of efforts to decentralise the management of this year's census to ensure the best outcomes, will among other things, facilitate the programme to ensure its success in all the 21 municipalities and districts in the region.
Mr Ofosu Ampofo said the population census was one of the most important and expensive data collection exercises any country could undertake.
Nonetheless, he said the government had decided, and was determined to have the fifth post-independence population census, which would be conducted at the latter part of the year.
"The upcoming census will provide the country with the opportunity of updating data on demographic and socio-economic characteristics at the national, regional, district, constituency and locality levels, the result of which will be critical to ensure equity in the distribution of the nation's resources, services and representation at all levels," Mr Ofosu Ampofo said.
He added that the census would ensure the availability of essential data for the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of the country's population and socio-economic development programmes, especially the Ghana Poverty Strategies and the Millennium Development Goals," he stated.
To ensure the success of the programme, he called for the active participation of the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in the census to enhance its implementation, adding "the role played by the MMDAs enabled the country to achieve successes in the previous census."
"I therefore hope the district assemblies will continue to support the Ghana Statistical Service to ensure effective implementation of this year's programme," he appealed to the MMDAs.
For her part, Dr Bediako said the 2010 population and housing census would require the mobilisation of substantial resources, both human and financial, to successfully execute it at every part of the country.
She said in all, about 45,000 field workers would be recruited and trained between four and five weeks, adding "as we draw close to the exercise, there is the need to broaden the support base and tap the wide range of skills from all segments of society to constitute a pool of expertise needed to undertake the exercise."
Dr Bediako urged stakeholders, including the media, communities, institutions, individuals and groups as well as development partners to join hands in order to make the exercise a success.
On behalf of his colleagues, Mr Bawah gave the assurance that the committees would work hard to make the programme's implementation a success.
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