The Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim has urged the newly inaugurated National Statistical Advisory Committee to establish an effective National Statistical System and advance the integration of both experimental and official statistics with practice, policy and research.

The National Statistical Advisory Committee is a statutory committee established per the Statistical Service Act 2019(Act 1003).

The committee comprises key producers and users of statistics in the various government institutions.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Prof. Annim said the committee must strengthen the production of harmonized and quality statistics and facilitate the coordination of statistical activities within the National Statistical System.

“What the national statistical system is supposed to do among others is harmonizing the statistics that we produce across this different government departments and more importantly, ensure how these statistics feed into national policy”, he said.

“Ghana currently is in a situation where data production has met certain standards and what this national statistical advisory committee is supposed to do is to try and centralize all the statistics that are currently available and have been produced in different ways which can serve the purpose of development, “he added.

He stated that the committee must harness the resourcefulness of the global data revolution agenda.

The Chairperson of the committee, Patricia Adusei-Poku added that there’s the need to collect accurate data for easy understanding by consumers.

“We need to build trust among ourselves and the people we serve by simplifying information that is available for them to consume. If we don’t collect accurate and quality data, we won’t be able to inform the public adequately,” she added.

Following the inauguration, the committee held its maiden meeting to deliberate on its organizational structure to operationalize its activities.