The Governing Board of the Ghana Statistical Service has been inaugurated, with a charge on members to provide the needed guidance and assistance to the management of the service.

According to a Deputy Finance Minister, Dr. John Kumah, the board among others should work towards expanding the establishment post of the service by ensuring experienced senior officers lead the production of statistics, supervise the preparation of an appropriate scheme of service to guide the career development of the staff and initiate the process for the drafting of the Legislative Instrument for the Statistical Service Act, 2019: Act 1003.

In a short ceremony, the Deputy Finance Minister, on behalf of the President and the Minister, expressed the appreciation of the Ministry to the immediate past Board for their wonderful guidance that culminated in the conduct of the first digital census in Ghana.

He remarked "we were impressed with the release of the Provisional Results within 44 days of completing field data collection. Now we are guided by the most current data in doing analysis in the Ministry”.

He also thanked the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim and his team for working tirelessly and smoothly without a governing Board for the past five months, noting that, “today’s inauguration of the Board would quicken the pace of growth and development, and the industrial harmony in the Service’’

The inaugural ceremony was conducted in accordance with Section 5 (2) of the Statistical Service Act, 2019: Act 1003 which mandates the President of the Republic, in consultation with the Council of State to appoint members to serve on the governing board of GSS.

The board, he stated, was relatively small though made up of persons with expert and diverse knowledge in statistical production and the management of human resources. These two key skills, he remarked, are needed in the transformational agenda embarked upon by the immediate past Board, which would enhance the status of GSS in the international statistical eco-system.

Dr. Kumah was of the view that Ghana is fast recovering from the impact of COVID-19 per quarterly and annual GDP growth rates released by the Statistical Service, and stated that as a country, ‘’we would strongly encourage you to continue to lead the staff to provide high quality statistics to guide the country’s growth and development as outlined in the Coordinated Programme for Economic and Social Development Policies’’.

The Ghana Statistical Service has embarked upon the Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) that would soon provide the country with data on quarterly Labour Force, Quarterly Multidimensional Poverty and Vulnerability Status.

The data would inform those in policy making, academia and research as to whether the country’s programmes and policies are impacting positively on the populace.

Since the government needs to know the outcome of the various government policies, Dr. Kumah pledged government’s support to the Service in all ways possible to re-tool it to achieve its core mandate of providing quality, relevant, accurate and timely statistics for the purpose of National Development.

The Deputy Minister reminded the board that the country depends strongly on Statistical Service to generate accurate and timely data to report on the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union Agenda 2063 and tasked the Board to lead the country in this direction to promote the effective use of statistics and stimulate research activities.

He promised the board that the government will find needed resources to facilitate their work since there is increasing demand for credible data for evidence-based decision making.

The government through the World Bank, provided the service with an amount of $150 million for the conduct of the 2021 Population and Housing Census as well as to harmonise and strengthen data collection systems in Ghana and seven West African Countries.

Though, the Deputy Minister acknowledged that considerable amount of that money was spent on the 2021 Population and Housing Census; the board should ensure the efficient use of the remaining resources as other initiatives are explored to financially strengthen the service.

The Deputy Minister concluded his remarks by assuring the board of government’s support and preparedness to provide the requisite resources, both human and finance, to enable them succeed in their national assignment.

Responding on behalf of the board, Dr Grace Bediako remarked that they deemed as honour to be called upon to serve the country as board members and indicated their readiness  to deliver as expected of them.

She therefore called on all the MDAs within the National Statistical System to cooperate with them to achieve their targets.

The board members include the Chair, Dr. Grace Bediako; Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim;  Dr. Evans Aggrey-Darko; Philip Abradu-Otoo and Professor Robert Darko Osei