GSS struggles to collect data

Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has disclosed that people in urban areas pose huge problems for personnel of the service during data collection exercises.

Anthony Amuzu, Director of Survey Organization and Census Directorate at GSS, who made this known to BUSINESS GUIDE in an interview yesterday in Accra, said it takes a lot of persuasion before data are collected from people in urban areas.

“You would explain and explain and explain but all they think about is their business. Meanwhile, such people are the very ones who keep coming to us for data for their activities,” he said.

Mr Amuzu said many businesses were benefitting from GSS’s surveys and data releases, denying reports by think-tanks and individuals that the Service was not doing any good job.

Mr. Amuzu said the GSS undertook a lot of programmes that helped the nation’s development.

He said apart from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI), which were micro-economic indicators that GSS released on monthly basis, it also conducted a number of surveys such as the Ghana Living Standards Survey, Demographic and Health Survey and Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaire surveys.

Mr. Amuzu expressed surprise sometimes at the way people, especially politicians, politicized the work of the GSS, stating that “when one party is in power, the other one will complain and when the other one too is in power, the one in opposition will also complain.

“But I want to say that we don’t work to favor any political party and we are not influenced by anybody. We just do our job as we are supposed to,” he said.

He said sometime ago when Danquah Institute and IMANI Ghana criticized the accuracy of the CPI data, we gave them our data sets to analyze and come out with their own findings but they could not come out with anything.”

“We need to be realistic when we are criticizing, urging the various think tanks, politicians and other individuals to consult the statistical service if they do not understand anything concerning data released.

“No single person can say that he or she has the magic wand in solving the problems of the nation. We all have to put our hands together to be able to do that.

Meanwhile, GSS will today release the key findings of the Ghana Living Standards Survey.