The Government of Ghana is expected to spend more than ¢521 million on the upcoming Population and Housing Census scheduled to commence at midnight of Sunday, June 27.

This year's census is unique because it will be done technologically and tablets have been acquired for enumerators and supervisors.

The amount includes the payment of enumerators, purchasing of logistics, fieldwork cost, and training of members to facilitate the effectiveness and efficiency of the census.

Mr Emmanuel G. Osei, the Head of Census Secretariat, disclosed this at the information session with Heads of Department in the Central Region organized by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in collaboration with the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).

The information session was to brief the heads on the preparedness of the Region and the strategies adopted to ensure that nobody or household was left out in the enumeration as well as the logistical support needed to carry out the exercise.

Mr Osei explained that as part of the preparations towards the successful implementation of the census, the Central Region had been divided into six zones to facilitate the smooth implementation of the census and to ensure everyone was duly captured.

He said recruitment, training of supervisors and field officers who would undertake the enumeration was ongoing and appealed to the participants to support the GSS to carry out a successful exercise.

According to the Head of Census Secretariat, the enumeration process required logistics to enable the field officers to reach out to all villages, communities, and hamlets across the districts in the Region.

He said the GSS would need logistical support, including vehicles and motorbikes to reach out to residents in the hard-to-reach communities and urged the heads to avail themselves when they need their support and services.

On the benefits of the exercise, he said apart from providing an updated demographic social and economic data to support national development activities, track implementation of global and continental development, the exercise would also help at the district and local levels to assess the developmental needs of the people.

Mr Osei disclosed that the 2021 Census would be heavily dependent on the use of computer-assisted personal interviews and a global positioning system (GPS) coordination for all structures and communities.

He noted that the census data would be a credible and indispensable source of statistics in the implementation of decentralised policies and programmes.

Mr Isaac Addae, the Regional Statistician, noted that data gathering was key in the management of cities hence the need for all citizens to participate in the exercise to improve decision making.

He announced that any person who took money on account of securing an appointment for anyone with the Ghana Statistical Service would be doing so at his or her own risk.

The Regional Statistician said the 2021 PHC would provide an indispensable framework in using administrative data to track the national, regions and global development agendas namely the Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies 2020-2024, the African Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Mr Addae appealed to the public to avail themselves to be counted to assist the national effort to conduct a successful PHC this year.