Mr. Eugene Sackey, Acting District Chief Executive of Upper West Akim District, has called on his constituents to support the 2021 Population and Houses Census (PHC).

He made the call at the official launch of the 30-day PHC night at Adeiso, where more than 120,000 people are expected to be enumerated.

He therefore called for cooperation from all for a successful exercise.

The programme was attended by traditional leader, civil society groups, market women, youth groups, assembly members, religious bodies, the media and security agencies in the district.

He announced that, sustaining efforts to conduct the census within a year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, makes Ghana one of the few African countries that endeavored to conduct their census regularly since 1891.

He said government was committed to evidence-base decision making and planning in all facets of decision making and the census would provide adequate data to measure, monitor and estimate progress on the national development agenda.

He therefore urged all and sundry living in the district to be ready to welcome census officials into their communities and places of residence and to provide complete and accurate information for their enumeration.

"Remember, the information given to officials is strictly confidential and will be handled only by persons who have taken the oath of Secrecy under the Statistical Service Act 2019 (Act 1003)", he assured them.

"This is not an era to create controversy and confusion around this important national development activity, and pleaded with the media to support the publicity, education and advocacy activities by disseminating only reliable information and facilitate constructive discussions on issues about the Census".

Mr Frederick Adom, Member of Parliament for the Upper West Akim Constituency, stated, that notwithstanding the importance of statistics in socio-economic development, it was a major exercise for planning, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes.

The sustainable development Goals (SDGs), and other development programmes, all placed heavy demand for increased availability of quality data to guide the path towards national and global development goals.

The MP, assured that the 2021 PHC would provide an enormous amount and variety of data to support the district key decisions to help attract new businesses in the district, national and global development process and called for participation by all.

Mr. Emmanuel Nketisah, the district census officer, on behalf of the Government Statistician Mr. Samuel Kobina Annim, informed the gathering that, the main goal of the census was to achieve complete coverage of all structures and persons in the district, which dovetailed into the "leave no one behind agenda" of the sustainable development goals.

Mr. Samuel Antwi-Boasiako, the district Coordinating Director, pledged the Assembly's support to the GSS to conduct a successful census.

A total of 98,000 persons gave themselves out to be counted during the previous PHC which culminated in the creation of that District.