Gov't Get 5year Facility To Support Statistical Service

Government has secured a five-year facility to support the works of Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).

Budgetary allocation to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) has been a challenge over the years due to the country's financial constraints.

But government statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, in an interview with Citi News welcomed the support but was quick to call for a more sustainable way of supporting the Service as this facility is expected to expire in 2024.

“The government has secured a facility to support our core businesses and this facility will take us through 2020 to 2024. But we are quick to indicate that, we need to start having discussions on what happens post-2024 because this is not the first time we are having such a facility but any time the facility runs out, we go through a grave period of financial difficulties especially those to pay our data collection personnel”, he said.

The Ghana Statistical Service has been consistent in performing its legal functions to serve the needs of individuals, organizations, development partners and the government without hindrance.

However, the need to improve the legal framework to reflect changes in the statistics landscape worldwide has resulted in the promulgation of a new law- Statistical Service Act, 2019 (Act 1003) to replace the Statistical Service Law, 1985.

The new law establishes the Ghana Statistical Service as the central statistics producing and co-ordinating institution for the National Statistical System and to strengthen the production of quality, relevant, accurate and timely statistical information for the purpose of national development.

Under the Act, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has to collaborate with the 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 is part of the service's five-year Corporate Plan (2020-2024).