“Indeed, it appears to be an academic exercise because the data is usually used by the literate community and so the other sections of the population who have no need for the use of the data may not be able to see the relevance of it.”
However, Dr Prince Armah maintains “for us to be able to plan well, any developing country will have to have impeccable data to enable them plan and take major decisions with high degree of accuracy. Presently, if you go to the health directorate to ask for certain figures, they will give you different data which may differ from data that the district assembly might give you. No serious country can develop if the data is not reliable, the data is not valid and the process of generating the data is not transparent and fair”.
Dr Prince Hamid Armah was speaking to 3news.com after he became the first person to be enumerated in the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipality on Monday.
“In all I spent five minutes. The process was very smooth and straightforward. The questions were very specific and direct,” he said.
He made a passionate plea for his constituents to avail themselves for the exercise to help generate accurate data that the government can rely on in its development planning agenda.
“It is a very important national assignment and everybody must get involved. As a country we need to know the people living here; we need to know the number of young people in the country; the number of people who are employed and not employed; age categories; income levels, among others. All this information is helpful in public policy decision making. So it is a very important process and I will encourage everybody especially my constituents to be very active and be part of the exercise.”
Dr Armah, who is also the Vice Chairman of the Education Committee in Parliament, explained that “with the correct data, government is able to estimate the population and determine the social amenities that are required. In doing so, we won’t put undue pressure on existing social infrastructure”.
The Effia Kwesimintsim Municipal Census Officer, Gideon Ekow Quayson, who also spoke to 3news.com after enumerating the MP, expressed confidence that the exercise will record a 100 percent success rate in the municipality.
“Before today, we engaged all the traditional leaders in Effia-Kwesimintsim and they have been very supportive. Apart from the announcements on the main radio stations, we have also engaged in a very rigorous public sensitization on all the community radio stations. We have also been moving from door to door to speak to people and so far, the feedback has been encouraging.”
Mr Quayson revealed that on census night, they enumerated over 200 floating population and over 100 outdoor sleepers.
Some 437 people including 69 supervisors and 368 enumerators have been deployed in the Effia-Kwesimintsim municipality.
In all, 4500 persons have been deployed for the 2021 Population and Housing Census in the Western Region.
By Eric Yaw Adjei|3news.com|Ghana
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