The Upper West Regional office of the Ghana Statistical Service has held a day's forum for about 40 stakeholders in the region on the importance of statistical data in the planning and development agenda of the country. The forum was organized as part of activities to mark Ghana Statistical Service week and the first statistic week to be held in the region The initiative was adopted in May 1990 by African ministers of finance and economic planning of the then Organisation of African Unity as a yearly advocacy tool aimed at raising awareness of the importance of statistics in the economic and social development of Africa. The participants included heads of government departments, representatives of non-governmental organizations, market women and community-based organizations. Francis Nyarkoh-Larbi, the Upper West Regional statistician, appealed to the public, organizations and institutions to demonstrate their appreciation for statistics by readily providing the service with the relevant information in all its surveys and censuses. Chief Dr Francis Bankah, an agro-industrialist, said statistical data becomes useful only when they are used to propel development. Source: GNA