The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), in collaboration with the University of Cape Coast (UCC), has launched four new digital platforms to enhance access to comprehensive data to inform policy, aid research and drive development.

The user-friendly online platforms are StatsBank, Digital Data Atlas, Rasterized Data, and Microdata Access.

The StatsBank, an online data repository, provides users with disaggregated data from censuses and surveys and is the first locally hosted tool of its kind in Africa.

The repository currently has more than 350 million statistics, including indicators from the 2021 Population and Housing Census, and detailed macro-economic indicators. It would be expanded to include data from future censuses and surveys.

The Digital Census Atlas, an ideal platform for new users, gives a visual census outlook on the Ghana Map, indicating relative district differences using percentages instead of absolute numbers.

It provides data on the more than 350,000 indicators developed from the 2021 Population and Housing Census.

The Rasterized Data makes detailed data beyond the regional and district levels available to users, mindful of the vexed issues of confidentiality and anonymity.

The data from this platform would be made available on demand to agencies or individuals subject to the confidentiality threshold.

Microdata Access houses anonymised raw data from censuses and surveys for the purpose of specialised analysis by advanced users.

Instead of the traditional 10 per cent microdata that is made accessible to the public, Microdata Access provides access to 100 per cent of the collected data.

Prior to the launch of the platforms, a hackathon was held for 25 students of UCC, grouped into six, who used data from the platforms to create innovative tools to tackle various social challenges.

A hackathon is a social coding event that brings computer programmers together to work on creative coding projects.

The teams identified by the names: Badwenba, Robust, Great Minds, Mean, Skyup and UCC, used the tools to find solutions to energy poverty, town planning, improved property tax, school enrolment and access to amenities, and school dropouts.

Team Great Minds, winners of the competition, created an Artificial Intelligence tool that enhances access to data.

Teams Badwenba and Robust, who were second and third, respectively, will join Team Great Minds to represent UCC at the national hackathon event.

Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician, noted that the complex challenges of the country could only be resolved when tackled from a multi-data point of view by integrating different data sets.

Emphasising the need for a data-sharing policy, he said the platforms would provide adequate resources for academics and policymakers who usually relied on their own data.

"The essence of the exercise is to bridge the national data-academia gap by bringing the data to the doorstep of academia," he added.

Prof Annim, therefore, encouraged academia to minimise the extent to which they collected their own data since they did not have the resources and time to do a full-scale national data collection exercise.

The GSS was working to ensure that no one, including differently-abled persons and people without internet access, was excluded.

Prof. Edem Amenumey, the Vice Dean of Students Affairs at UCC, said given the comprehensive data provided by the GSS, there was no excuse for underdevelopment.

"We are making strides. If only those who need to take one step forward will do that, Ghana will be a better place for all of us," he said.

He entreated students to leverage the platforms for research instead of spending time and money to gather data.

Prof Kobina Essia Donkor, Associate Professor, Department of Population and Health, UCC, urged colleges, faculties and universities to engage students in hackathons to encourage them to come up with innovative ideas to address societal problems.