The District Chief Executive for Akrofuom District in the Ashanti Region, Hon. Maurice Jonas Woode has assured citizenry of the confidentiality of the responses they give to enumerators for the 2021 Population and Housing Census which is to be organised soon.
He said the enumerators will be trained in a manner that they can not divulge any information to any other person and also they will be required to take the “Oath of Secrecy” under the Statistical Service Act 2019 (Act 1003).
Hon. Woode made this known when he launched the 30 days countdown to the 2021 Population and Housing Census at the St. Luke Catholic Church at Akrofuom last friday.
He said the Population and Housing Census is an important exercise which all must contribute to make it a success in the district, stressing on the need for all to give genuine and accurate responses.
He added that government continues to be committed to evidence-based decision making and planning in all facets of decision making in our development agenda, thus the need for this important exercise which will also help the Assembly to know how adequately it has to allocate resources and also address the needs of the people in the district.
Hon. Woode also assured that the Assembly on its part will ensure that the census goes on smoothly and in a safe and secured environment with minimum or no disruption.
For his part, the District Coordinating Director and the Chairman of the District Census Implementation Committee (DCIC) in Akrofuom, Mr. Ebenezer Douglas Ntiamoah also echoed the importance of the exercise and asked all to support to make it a success in the district.
He said the census will collect information on every structure, household and individual, thereby providing reliable and disaggregated data to lowest levels of administration which will really benefit the Akrofuom District Assembly.
He also assured that the DCIC will support the exercise till the last day of the exercise.
The District Census Officer, Ms. Margaret Mary Anokyewaa also briefed the gathering on the timelines for the exercise. She said the qualified applicants who passed the interview held recently will begin a ten days training on the census from Monday 31st May. Also from 13th June to 20th June, the enumerators will also move into the communities to list all habitable structures in the district.
The real census will be from 28th June to 11th July, which will precede a census night which is expected to be on 27th June. She urged all to be aware of the dates and accommodate the enumerators accordingly.
The participants were draw from all spheres of life in the district. They included the religious institutions, market women, physically challenged persons, students, teachers, youth groups, traditional leaders and a host of others.