Veep on census.

Accra, Sept 29, GNA - Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday renewed the call on Ghanaians to fully participate in the on-going national population and housing census exercise. He said apart from serving as a critical component for nation-building and data collection, the exercise would also assist Government to plan for development and serve as a data base to facilitate the distribution of resources.

The Vice President made this call when Dr. Grace Bediako, government statistician led officials of the Statistical service to pay a courtesy call on him at the Castle, Osu.

They were also there to find out when it would be convenient for the Vice President to be counted in the national exercise. Vice President Mahama asked them to count him at his residence on Saturday, October 2, and used the opportunity to urge Ghanaians to give the Census Officials the fullest cooperation since government would for the next ten years rely on whatever data they came out with after the exercise to ensure the equitable distribution of resources. Dr. Grace Bediako, who expressed optimism in coming out with the best results as planned, however, expressed shock at the numbers they were recording on the streets of Accra.

"We are alarmed by the sheer numbers of homelessness, something we did not anticipate," she said, adding "We are, however, happy that since the commencement of the census we have not recorded any negativity or resistance from the populace." As a result, she said they were compelled to mobilize resources to acquire more questionnaire to avoid any shortage in the course of the exercise.