The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) will conduct the postponed population and Housing Census between April and May 2021.

This was announced by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo when  he recently launched the Ghana Census of Agriculture Report put together by the Ghana Statistical Service.

The census was initially set to begin on March 15, 2020, with the first two weeks expected to be used for listing, a process that comprises the zoning and coding of the number of houses and structures to be covered in the census.

However, it was rescheduled to June 28, 2020 but was finally postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A statement issued by the Ghana Statistical Service to give further explanation to the President’s announcement assured that measures have been put in place to ensure a smooth and an incident-free process.

GSS also noted that, it intends to recruit and train field officers in their respective districts.

“In view of the numbers involved for training of field officers, it has become necessary for GSS to use Ghana Education Service class rooms for the training of the field officers. Giving that the classrooms will only be available during this period (April—May), when schools will be on recession as the conduct of the census is contingent on the availability of classroom for training field staff,” the statement noted.

The statement also noted that during the launch, the President indicated government’s commitment and readiness to support the conduct of the 2020 round of Population and Housing Census despite the challenge posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Couple with the advanced preparation for the census, the President assured the Ghana Statistical Service, the organisation legally mandated to conduct the census that, financial resources have been ring-fenced and that data collection has been scheduled to commence from April to May 2021.

The Management of GSS also assured all stakeholders and the public that the service is committed to conduct the Census within the stipulated time frame.

“In connection with this, recruitment is ongoing for the National and Regional trainers as well as field officers,” it added.