The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has sensitised Coordinating Directors of Municipal and District Assemblies and Heads of decentralised department and agencies in the Eastern Region on the upcoming population and housing census scheduled for April 2021.

The Coordinating Directors and Heads of Departments were briefed on the preparedness of the Region and the strategies adopted to ensure that nobody or household was left out in the enumeration as well as the logistical support needed to carry out the exercise.

Mr Bright Worlanyo Neku, Eastern Regional Head of the GSS, disclosed that as part of the preparations towards the successful implementation of the census, the Eastern Region was divided into three statistical Regions to facilitate the smooth implementation of the census and to ensure everyone was duly captured.

He said recruitment and training of supervisors and field officers who would undertake the enumeration was ongoing and appealed to the MDAs and the decentralised departments and agencies to support the GSS to carry out a successful exercise.

According to the Regional Director, the enumeration process required logistics to enable the field officers to reach out to all villages, communities and hamlets across the districts in the region.

He said the GSS would need logistical support, including vehicles and motorbikes to reach out to residents in the hard-to-reach communities.

On the benefits of the exercise, he said apart from providing an updated demographic social and economic data to support national development activities, to track implementation of global and continental development, it also helped at the district and local levels to assess development needs of the people.

He said since the census provided accurate data for analysis and development, it would also help the MDAs to improve their Internally Generated Funds (IGF) such as property rates.

Mr Neku said the government was committed to the course of the census and provided the resources to ensure a successful exercise.

However, support from the MDAs and the decentralised departments in the respective regions was very critical to their mandate, he added.