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Imams tasked to educate Muslims to participate in upcoming Census

Imams tasked to educate Muslims to participate in upcoming Census

The Federation of Muslim Council of Ghana (FMC) has urged Islamic religious leaders, especially imams to as a matter of urgency, educate Muslims on the need to participate in the upcoming Population and Housing Census (PHC) exercise.

That, the federation said would enable a smooth flow of the exercise to achieve its target and also help the government in its policy decision making.

The census exercise would start on June 28 and end on July 11, 2021 to enumerate all persons and living quarters within Ghana.

According to a statement issued in Accra yesterday and signed by the Secretary-General of FMC, Hajj Muhammad Amir Kpakpo Addo the exercise was a civic duty and expressed the need for Muslims to make it an Islamic duty to avail themselves to be counted.

“The FMC is also urging all Imams, especially those who address Jumu’ah (Friday Prayer) congregants to use their Khutbah (Sermon) to stress the usefulness of the census exercise to Muslims beginning Friday, June 11, 2021 till the close of the exercise,” it said.

The statement also reminded Muslims to note that the PHC exercise was not a one-off event, but rather one that embraced phases in the enumeration process.

“Prominent among which are numbering of buildings with chalk (Chalking) and asking questions of the house,  including number of people in the house (Listing of structures) on the 13th June, 2021, and enumeration of households and institutions (that is, personal information including living conditions),” it added.

Speaking in a media interview, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician and Chief Census Officer explained that the exercise was important and highly needed by the government to plan for educational needs, where to locate health facilities, how to allocate the social expenditures and identify those who needed help in the society.

He appealed to the public to co-operate fully with the staff of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to make the exercise a success.

“It is the only opportunity for every Ghanaian to be heard, and we are giving every person in Ghana a voice so that the right intervention can be instituted right to the individual level rather than the aggregate that we have been using. This will help to generate data that will be used in decision-making and planning for the development of the country and its citizens,” Prof Annim added.

He assured that preparations were far advanced to ensure the exercise commences successfully.

Prof Annim identified key areas for the exercise to include 131,739 localities, 51,916 enumeration areas, 11,020 supervisory areas in the 260 districts and 16 regions in the country.

He indicated that 75,000 tablets were made available for the enumerators to aid their operations and noted that there would be the use of interactive maps to facilitate effective deployment of field personnel to avoid duplications or gaps in the listing of structures and enumeration of persons and urged the citizenry to have faith in the system.

The exercise which was in line with the “leave no one behind” agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) hasa slogan “you count, get counted.”

It would provide updated demographic, socio-economic and housing data to support development and decision-making as well as the tracking of global, regional, and national development goals.

Source: www.spotonnews.net

Joyceline Natally Cudjoe

An Entertainment Columnist, Content Writer, Blogger, Novelist, Poet, and a Publicist. For business or story tip off, contact me on +233 24 646 6866 or email: [email protected]
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