GhanaPostGPS App will boost 2020 Census data collection — Govt Statistician

The Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, has said the GhanaPostGPS App is an important resource that will help the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) enhance the collection of data in the upcoming 2020 population census.

Addressing a section of the media after a brief meeting between officials of the Ghana Post and the GSS in Accra last Tuesday, Prof. Annim said the entire data collection method had transitioned from paper to computer-based collection.

“The use of the GhanaPostGPS App will simplify the collection of data, such as Geocodes, data on regions, districts and localities which always form part of data collected in every census since 1960,” he noted.

“The 2020 Population and Housing Census (PHC) will provide a comprehensive list of the location of structures, schools, hospitals, among others, to help Ghana Post improve on its service delivery,” he added.

Training

The Chief Commercial Officer of Ghana Post, Mr Jonathan Ansah, who led the Ghana Post delegation to the meeting, said he was optimistic about the collaboration, adding that arrangements would be made to train the GSS team on the App in order to generate accurate data for a successful census.

The GhanaPostGPS is Ghana's official digital property addressing system which ensures that all locations in the country are addressed.

With GhanaPostGPS, every location has a unique digital address, which is a composite of the postcode (region, district and area code) plus a unique address.

The GSS is set to undertake a national census in 2020.

A trial population and housing census is ongoing to provide a base for accurate report and data collection.

Background

The GhanaPostGPS was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on October 18, 2017.

It was to aid in policy initiatives and planning on the part of the government, provide accurate data for planning and service delivery for service providers and, ultimately, make it easy to identify and find locations, as well as boost emergency service delivery.

It was designed by Vokacom, a Ghanaian information technology firm, with the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) hosting the data.

The GhanaPostGPS is a global addressing system which divides Ghana into 5m x 5m squares and assigns each a unique address, known as the digital address.

A national address registry has been embedded in the system to enable individuals to validate their homes and businesses for easy direction and identification.