Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, says the new Statistical Service Act (Act 1003) passed in 2019 will help address challenges in misreporting and misrepresentation in statistics.
Prof. Annim said, under the Act, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) would collaborate with the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) every year to ensure that all generated statistics designated as national information would be used by all stakeholders as the authentic data for national discourse.
This, he explained would help differentiate between the national data generated by the GSS and experimental data by other institutions or civil societies.
The Government Statistician said this on Thursday at a workshop on data interpretation and communication for selected media practitioners specialised in business reporting.
The programme was organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the GSS.
"We will be developing a code of practice and ethics under the Act, which will bind all MDAs in the country to follow specific standards for generating data", he said.
Prof. Annim said the Act served as a strategic mechanism for harnessing the changes in the approaches used by the GSS to collect and produce statistical information at the national level.
This, he said included new ways and use of non-traditional statistical information and data such as big data, satellite imagery, administrative data, and commercial data.
Prof. Annim said the GSS was running a project with Parliament to build capacity of its research department and said discussions were far advanced to have a desk in Parliament to help Parliamentarians to be abreast with statistics for effective and efficient decision-making.
He said that was part of the Service's five-year Corporate Plan (2020-2024), which outlined an ambitious journey for the Service with a concentrated and revitalized effort.
The Head of Communications, UNDP, Ms Praise Nutakor, said the training was necessitated because GSS and UNDP often produced research reports on various aspects of development to inform policy decisions.
She, however, said such data was sometimes misinterpreted and misrepresented out of context.
Ms. Nutakor said the training would help improve the knowledge and understanding of journalists on how to effectively communicate the results of data analysis and also get a basic understanding of statistical methods and terminologies.
Latest Stories
-
Ogum and Kotoko’s March malaise
1 hour -
2 repair vessels dispatched for undersea cable repairs – says NCA’s latest update
2 hours -
Multimedia Group Limited’s Clinton Yeboah shortlisted for 2 International Sports Press Association Awards
2 hours -
Supreme Court upholds High Court verdict on fraudulent sale of property by Senior Police Officer
2 hours -
NHIS Biometric Membership Authentication System limited rollout satisfactory – NHIA Deputy CEO
3 hours -
Yara Ghana donates 1,107 bags of fertilizers to women farmers, farmers with disabilities
3 hours -
Tinubu forms team to find solutions to ailing economy
3 hours -
Jacob Zuma barred from running in South Africa election
3 hours -
Western Cape Education wins national primary school track and field championships
3 hours -
Cyber Security Authority issues Public Alert over Easter and Eid al-Fitr season scams
3 hours -
Sandro Tonali charged by FA for alleged betting rules breaches after joining Newcastle
3 hours -
Scancom PLC holds 6th AGM, declares dividend of 17.5 pesewas per share
4 hours -
Former Deputy AG accuses Godfred Dame of unethical legal behaviour
4 hours -
John Kumah goes home on May 18
4 hours -
Tema General Hospital: If a baby died, it wasn’t because of ‘dumsor’ – GHS Accra Director
4 hours