The Statistical Service (GSS) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will enhance its capacity building programme for media practitioners on data reporting.

This will lead to some accreditation to journalists in data reporting and churning out of credible statistical report for the country.

Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim gave the hint at a three days data communication and interpretation training programme for some selected Journalists by the UNDP and the GSS in Dodowa.

According to him, the GSS is embarking on a series of data survey hence the need to broaden the scope of media personnel to have a better understanding of the results and report same.

“We have broadened our generation of statistics which is partly influenced by the new statistical service act and with the current occurrences including Covid-19, we continue to produce new statistics so we need to engage the media on any new data generated.

"We should have a way of building the capacity of media and moving forward we shall graduate it in a way that journalists will earn some accreditation based on the level of statistical capacity acquired over the period,” he said.

Supporting the idea, Economic Advisor at the UNDP, Frederick Mugisha noted that the UNDP is very prepared to get on board the initiative since it will help in getting qualified Media Personnel to disseminate the economic reports about the country.

“This is something we want to do to improve the quality of economic reportage in the media and as we begin the collaboration, we shall ensure that the deserving people get accreditation to report on the economic policies and data of the country” added Frederick Mugisha, Economics Advisor, UNDP.

Francis Bright Mensah, Head of National Accounts Statistics at the GSS took the participants through some basic knowledge of generating data and how the services managed to communicate its data reports.

Head of Communications at the UNDP, Praise Nutakor expressed confidence that the participants will make use of the new techniques learnt at the programme to improve upon their reporting skills on the various statistics from both the Ghana Statistical Services and the United Nations Development Programme.