President John Dramani Mahama has called for national statistics and data disseminated by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to remain factual, credible, and free from manipulation.
He issued the directive during the swearing-in ceremony of the newly appointed Government Statistician, Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, held at the Jubilee House on Friday, May 2.
The President highlighted the role accurate data plays in development and decision-making, stressing that the integrity of national data must be protected at all costs.
He further urged the new Statistician to resist any pressure that could compromise the objectivity of the service’s output.
Mahama urged the new statistician to speak truth to power even when the data is uncomfortable.
“Statistical integrity is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. Citizens must believe that the numbers published by the service are objective and factual and are free from political interference.
“Investors must be assured that Ghana’s macroeconomic data is credible. Development partners must know that our results framework are measurable and verifiable.
He added, “I urge the new statistician to lead with courage and impartiality, to speak truth to power even when the data is uncomfortable. Work closely with stakeholders, ministries, academia, civil society organizations, and the private sector to strengthen the culture of data use across government.
“Under this administration, we’re building a governance model anchored in transparency, performance, and accountability. From health, education, and agriculture to urban planning, we need timely and disaggregated data to guide implementation, to measure results and correct our course when necessary.”
In his remarks, Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu stated that the Ghana Statistical Service would adopt technology-driven approaches to meet data needs and enhance efficiency.
“We are committed to delivering credible, timely, and relevant data to support our macroeconomic stabilization programme and our socioeconomic development agenda, including flagship initiatives we’ve introduced such as the 24-hour economic policy, the agriculture for transformation agenda, the Adwumawura programme, the national apprenticeship programme, the national coders programme, and the anti-corruption drive as we just emphasized. Beyond this, we will actively anticipate and respond to the emerging data needs of a dynamic economy and ambitious, forward-looking people,” he said.
He added that the service would fast-track the release of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data and introduce GDP estimates at the regional level to better inform localised development strategies.
“Currently, inflation ends at the regional level. This will support the decentralisation agenda of the government and will inform inflation policy at the district level. And three, on prices, we’ll produce a CPI and inflation data on rural rural-urban basis to get a better appreciation of inflation from the rural-urban perspective.
“Your Excellency, on economic activities, we will, one, fast-track the rebasing of GDP data to make our GDP statistics more accurate and relevant. We will call for institutionalisation of rebasing of our GDP every five years to make our GDP data more relevant and to meet global standards,” he stated.
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