Census: People suspect us to be armed robbers, some attack us — GSS enumerators lament

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) says the increasing spate of armed robbery attacks in the country is hampering the smooth progress of the Population and Housing Census.

The Population and Housing Census, being conducted by the GSS, is currently at the listing stage, where trained enumerators visit various homes within their census area to label or list structures.

With the recent spate of robbery attacks in the country, however, some persons have denied the trained enumerators access to their homes in fear of an attack from persons masquerading as personnel from the GSS.

In an interview with Citi Business News, the Head of Census Methodology workstream at the GSS, Owusu Kagya, said this is making their work difficult.

“Starting the exercise, we are faced with a few challenges. One of the challenges we have faced as an institution is some people are not allowing the field officers in their homes. A few of the reports we have received indicate that people are not sure they are part of the census. People have linked it to robbery attacks in their area and suspect they may be robbers,” he said.

The business community has also been encouraged to avail themselves for the exercise as data collected on socioeconomic and housing conditions will allow for the identification of vulnerable individuals and households for targeted interventions from institutions like the Ghana Enterprises Agency.

Mr. Kagya added that going forward, all enumerators will be encouraged to keep their Identification cards on them while executing their mandate.

“We have given our field officers ID cards and they also have letters of introduction and, as I indicated, they also have jackets. The tablets also have statistical service stickers and so we think that if people doubt [them], they can use these to check.”

---citinewsroom