By Edzorna Francis Mensah
Ghana Statistical Service has handed over 14 vehicles to enhance the statistical operations of seven Ministries, Departments and Agencies implementing the harmonising and improving Statistics in West Africa (HISWA) Project
The vehicles were handed over to the beneficiary MDAs in a ceremony at the Census Secretariat, GSS Head Office in Accra on Wednesday, June 22.
Births and Deaths Registry received eight (8) of the vehicles, while one (1) vehicle each was given to Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana Police Service, Registrar General’s Department; Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture; Ghana Health Service and Ghana Immigration Service.
The vehicles were allocated as part of efforts to enhance data collection and monitor MDA statistics Units under the Harmonising and Improving Statistics in West Africa (HISWA) project.
The HISWA Project is designed to strengthen the statistical systems of participating countries in Africa to harmonise, produce, disseminate, and enhance the use of core economic and social statistics.
Ghana with six other West African Countries (Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia), are implementing the project from 2020−2025. The
The project is being implemented in Ghana by the Statistical Service in collaboration with 19 other MDAs with funding from the Government of Ghana through the IDA Credit of the World Bank.
In all, 13 MDAs on the HISWA Project are receiving both financial and technical support. These are Ghana Statistical Service, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Births and Deaths Registry, Registrar-General’s Department, Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture; Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
An additional seven MDAs – Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, Ministry of Works and Housing, Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, National Communication Authority, National Road Safety Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, and Ministry of Trade and Industry – are to receive technical assistance from the HISWA Project.
The HISWA Project is producing a wide range of data from surveys, censuses, administrative and big data from a variety of sources including mobile phones and satellite imagery to address the data needs of the country. The Project adopts a system-wide approach to statistics development to engender an integrated, harmonised and interoperable production and use of statistics for policy formulation and monitoring.
Given the importance of the HISWA project objectives for national development, the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, urged the MDAs receiving the vehicles to ensure that the vehicles are used by their Statistics Units for the purpose for which they were given to them.
He also emphasised the numerous contributions of the HISWA Project towards statistical development in the country including supporting the conduct of the 2021 Population and Housing Census which has so far released 13 reports and the Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) which will enable quarterly GDP compilation, improve the compilation of the annual GDP by expenditure, estimate regional GDP and provide annual and quarterly labour statistics.
