Ghanaian public told to demand Census ID cards from enumerators
The public has been advised to inspect the Identification (ID) Cards of enumerators before consenting to give information to them during the 2010 National Population and Housing Census, which begins midnight of Monday, September 26.
The Central Regional Statistician, Mr Francis Bright Mensah, who gave the advice on Thursday, said this was to ensure that imposters did not participate in the exercise as information to be provided was supposed to be confidential.
Enumerators assigned by the Ghana Statistical Service would therefore wear identification tags embossed with its logo and dress neatly in ‘T-Shirts and caps. The officers will swear oaths of secrecy before High and Circuit Court Judges, he said.
Mr Mensah was addressing an advocacy workshop on the Census for stakeholders including representatives of religious groups, transport unions and civil society organizations to brief them of their roles in ensuring a successful exercise.
He said the three weeks exercise would begin with the listing of houses and structures on the 20th of this month, to be followed by the enumeration of households, institutions and floating population from September 26 to October 10.
The Regional Statistician asked the public to report to the district or regional offices of the Service all houses or structures that might be left out during the exercise to enable it to capture them during a mop up exercise to be carried out after six months.
The public should also desist from cleaning the numbers to be written on houses and structures until after the mop up exercise.
They should also report officials whose work they might consider unsatisfactory for them to be cautioned.
Ms Joyce Ami Amedoe, Regional population Officer said this year’s census was the fifth to be carried out in the country and hinted that the Census Night would be heralded by bomb fires, floats, hooting of horns, tolling of church bells and sirens at the community level, to serve as a memoriam or reference period.
She re-echoed calls to all residents of the country to cooperate with Census Officials and to provide truthful information to them for the country to have a good working document that would help it to plan and spearhead its socio-economic growth.
The participants urged the officials to evolve measures that would check double counting.
They said the public should also not offer themselves to be counted twice.
Source: GNA