A delegation led by the Government Statistician and Chief Census Officer, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim paid a courtesy call on the Regional Minister for the Northern Region, Honourable Alhaji Shani Alhassan Shaibu in Tamale on Tuesday April 13th. After the delegation introduced themselves, Professor Annim expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to pay the courtesy call and stated the mission for the visit was to hand over census implementation to the region. Due to the complexity of conducting a digital census, Ghana Statistical Service was decentralising operations to the district level under the oversight of the regions. He proceeded then to highlight the areas where the support of the Regional Coordinating Council was particularly needed. These included the provision of storage facilities and office spaces; publicity, education and advocacy; and ensuring that all persons in living in conflict areas, enumeration areas with boundary disputes and communities cut off during the rainy season will be counted.

Honourable Shaibu thanked the delegation for the visit and stated that it was a great honour. He noted that he viewed the census as an exercise to help him do his work. He could not develop his region without data and needed data to solve the regional challenges such as estimating how many residents need water and housing for targeted interventions. He was excited that updated data was going to come out from the 2021 PHC for decision-making and planning so that he can have data to back up requests for resources. As such, he was more than happy to support the census to make it a success so that the government can have what is needed to plan for our people. He ended by giving the delegation an assurance that all their concerns will be addressed to ensure the census is.