The 2020 Census Steering Committee has appealed to the Chinese government for support in acquiring 70,000 tablets to help Ghana conduct her nationwide census next year.

The tablets are to help the GSS use technology in ensuring the timely release of census data to guide policy planning and development.

The request was made by Government Statistician Prof Samuel Kobina Annim when he led a delegation to visit the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Shi Ting Wang, to express the GSS’s appreciation to the government of China for granting full scholarships to four senior officers to undertake a three-week seminar on IT-based statistics management for developing countries.

Prof Annim used the occasion to brief the ambassador about the steps the GSS was taking to conduct the next population and housing census in March 2020.

In his response, the Chinese Ambassador expressed the desire of the embassy to know the number of Chinese in Ghana as that information is not readily and accurately available to them.

He remarked that the Chinese are not required to report to the embassy when in another country, hence, if the census would provide them with that data, that would be of immense help to the embassy.

The Ambassador also said the cooperation between Ghana and China was strong. He said it is reflected in the number of Ghanaians studying the Chinese language as against the USA, for example.

He revealed that there were 6,500 Ghanaian students in China as against 3,500 in the USA for the 2019 academic year and added that 310 of the students in China were on full Chinese scholarship.

On the request for the 70,000 tablets, the Ambassador said that appeal is awaiting the response of the Chinese government in Beijing.

Prof Annim, in a follow-up, expressed his appreciation to the Ambassador for the consideration but intimated that the deadline for the acquisition of tablets was a tight one.

The Government Statistician was accompanied by Mrs Araba Forson, Deputy Government Statistician and Kwadwo Asante-Mensah, Director of Administration.