The Savannah Regional Directorate of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has conducted a five-day training workshop for over 200 field officers who would be deployed to collect data across seven districts on businesses within the Savannah Region as part of the 2024 Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES) taken place nationwide.
Officials of the GSS have said that the data collection exercise, which will begin on 15 January and end in 14 February 2024, will cover business activities in the country, including Micro & Macro, Small & medium-sized businesses, service sector and general business as a whole.
This forms part of the Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES-1), expected to provide updated statistics on the location, ownership and size of businesses and a revision of key macroeconomic indicators, including Gross Domestic Products (GDP).
The Savannah Regional Statistician, Alhaji Andani Iddrisu Abdulai, speaking to the media on the sidelines of the training in Damongo on Thursday 11 January 2024, noted that the exercise is to train the enumerators, field workers and district directors on how to conduct a successful census.
He refuted claims by a section of the public that the data collection is a way to witch-hunt businesses in the form of tax and other revenue obligations in the country.
“In the Ghana Statistical Service, we have what we call confidentiality. We are not supposed to reveal any secret or any information to any person if it’s harmful. For that matter, taxes that are harmful or which are not tolerated by most business people are such that they are not supposed to lick that information from a third party,” he added.
“We are interested in the number of businesses that are in the country and that is all, and under no circumstances will people be entertaining fear that we are going to share what we are gathering with the Ghana Revenue Authority for that matter to use it as tax on them.”
Alhaji Andani encouraged the public not to entertain any fear of such claims.
A lead facilitator, Juahua Abugri expressed satisfaction about the cooperation and response of enumerators at the training.
He said enumerators have been taken through areas including how to identify a business establishment, questioning and establishment questionnaires, among others.
“This particular training has exposed them to so many strategies that they are going to use to get this business countered and our trainees are ready to hit the field,”‘ Abugri said.
He assured the general public of their confidentiality during the enumeration exercise.
Matuweamu Janet, an enumerator, is confident that the skills she acquired will help and guide her during the exercise.
185 enumerators, 10 facilitators, 7 district statistical service officers and one master statistician have been trained to undertake the exercise.
The training started on Monday 8 January and ended on Friday 12 January 2024, with field training for enumerators.
Reporting by Tahiru Abdul-Washiru in the Savannah region
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