The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) says the 2021 Population and Housing Census exercise in the Upper West Region has been smooth and largely successful. Speaking to A1 Radio, the Upper West Regional Director of the GSS, Sixtus Dery said the exercise is on track and could be 100 percent complete at the end of the 14-day stipulated census period. Mr Dery disclosed that as at the daily update on the 9th day, enumerators had covered about 70 percent of the entire region.
“We have our daily target and so far on the 9th day we are on track. We have exceeded that 9th day target. So I can say we are around 70 percent coverage,” he explained.
The Director explained further that the major challenge with enumeration has been in the Wa Municipality because of the cosmopolitan nature of the area. Mr Dery however mentioned that schemes had been devised to ensure that each household in enumerated before the close of the 14-day period.
He said initially, community members felt reluctant in meeting the enumerators to complete the process because of the bulky nature of the questionnaire. He observed that after thorough education during the listing period, there has been a smooth collaboration between community members and enumerators across the region.
“There were issues of people rejecting the exercise saying that it is time consuming and that they had to go to their farms. During the listing period we spoke to them so now they understand. The challenge may be that during the day, they are in the farms and so enumerators have to go very early in the morning or late in the evening to be able to meet them,” he said.
He said that there had been a few incidents of motor accidents involving enumerators and said such incidents are being dealt with through the appropriate laid down structures.
“They are riding and some of them may have fallen off and those have been duly reported. We have a template with the District Officers to capture these incidents so that we can follow up and fairly compensate these people for the cost of taking care of themselves”. Mr Dery named the Wa West District, Sissala West District, Sissala East Municipal, Lawra Municipal and Nandom Municipal as some of the areas where such incidents had been recorded.
He called for continuous support to enable the GSS complete the exercise successfully.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz| Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
