The Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, has rejected claims that the cost of the 2021 Population and Housing Census is bloated.

According to him, the over GHS520 million budget for the exercise is necessary and within all approved benchmarks.

Listing of houses as part of the census began nine days ago, with a full-blown rollout of the exercise expected to begin on Sunday, June 27, 2021, which has been declared as the Census Night.

Addressing MPs on the exercise, Prof. Annim broke down the cost of the different components of the census and provided justifications for the budget.

“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) GHS2,520, and for each supervisor, over the same period, each person is being paid GHS2,940. 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 GHS1,200. This again consumes more than one-fifth of the cost. So clearly, those claims of bloated cost cannot be true just by this calculation.”

About 2021 census

The 2021 population and housing census will commence on June 27, 2021.

The exercise, which will run till July 11, 2021, is meant to generate data that will be used in decision-making and planning for the development of the country and its citizens.

Listing of structures

Currently, the Ghana Statistical Service is numbering various structures nationwide.

According to GSS, it has been able to number about 70% of the estimated 11 million structures in the country in the past six days.

Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim said this forms part of the first phase of the 2021 Population and Housing Census.

“The exercise is in two phases. The first phase is what we are currently doing and the essence of doing that exercise is to achieve our primary objective of the census undertaking which has to do with comprehensive and complete coverage. So ahead of the enumeration exercise, we combed around the country to ensure that structures at different levels of completion are chalked and listed,” he said at a press briefing on Sunday, June 20, 2021.