A Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, has stressed the need for governments to invest more in data systems to generate enough data to help accelerate the country’s development process.

According to him, the value of data to national development cannot be overemphasised, adding that development cannot happen if there is no data.

To back his call using facts, Prof. Annim referenced an international study which indicated that globally, for every $1 that is invested in a data system, it returns $32, and reiterated that “development can never happen if you don't have statistics from a numbers point of view.” 

The Graphic Business fully aligns with the call based on the facts as provided and the recall of how our country has stagnated because of how policies and programmes are planned and executed without data backing them.

There seem to be a lot of data in all facets of the economy which can be used in planning and executing policies and programmes but these have been neglected because those at the helm of affairs, at each point in time, failed to value data as a guide to the crafting and implementation of policies and programmes.

According to a United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report christened, Data for Development, at a time when digital connectivity defines our lives, the importance of data in shaping the trajectory of global development cannot be understated. 

Again, the UN body noted that as economies and societies become increasingly interwoven with digital technologies, data emerge not only as an asset but as a catalyst for transformative change.

One typical example that demonstrates the government’s lack of appreciation of data has to do with the drivers of inflation for instance.

Consistently, we notice that food has been a major driver of inflation. Inherent in that data is the fact that there are some few food products whose weights are so high that, when joined to others, it drives inflation up. One typical example is tomatoes.

It is because of this that we, as a paper, back the calls on the government to focus its attention on producing in abundance the very food items which force inflation to rise. 

Today, while we see inflation at 22.8 per cent at the end of June, food inflation is more than two percentage points higher and that is unacceptable.

The Graphic Business believes it is not rocket science to fix the problem because the available data shows the way.

Data is a valuable resource because we can tell without any equivocation that, from the explanations given by the Government Statistician, data can allow governments and organisations to measure the effectiveness of a given strategy. 

We also believe that when strategies are put in place to overcome a challenge, collecting data can allow one to determine how well a given solution is performing, and whether or not that approach needs to be tweaked or changed over the long term.

At a time when the country is poised to change its trajectory to do things better to accelerate our development, there is the need for more investment in data systems as suggested by the Government Statistician. 

If, as earlier indicated, a dollar investment into data systems can return $32, then we are better off leveraging this to overcome our developmental and financial woes.

As a paper, we also believe that available data need to be a pivotal guide to every planning process and execution because without that we could be, as the popular advertising quote says, “winking at a woman in the dark”.