Ghana Statistical Service collaborates with Statistics Denmark to build stronger statistics in Ghana.

Strong statistical data enable policy makers to make evidence-based decisions, just as it allows ordinary citizens and civil society organisations to undertake evidence-based advocacy for change. Ghana conducts censuses and surveys to generate statistics but this is both expensive and time consuming. The strategy of the Ghana Statistical Service is, therefore, to increase the use of administrative data for statistics production in the future.

Administrative data is routine data collected by public/private institutions for purposes other than statistics i.e. births and deaths records, national identification authority’s records, student enrolments, taxation, health records, cross border trade data, consumer prices etc. Since the 1960s almost all data used for statistics production in Denmark were derived from such administrative records.

In 2019, Statistics Denmark and the Ghana Statistical Service entered into a strategic sector cooperation, with the particular purpose to strengthen the generation of official statistics in Ghana through the increased use of administrative data. Other areas of the collaboration include price statistics, trade statistics, the establishment of a statistics databank, statistics quality, as well as metadata compilation.

Strategic Sector Cooperation between Statistics Denmark and Ghana Statistical Service – Phase I

Key achievements

• Ghana Statistical Service has rebased its consumer price index and extended the calculation from 10 to 16 regions.
• Establishment of a data quality structure to serve as a guide to all data-collecting institutions involved in the production of quality statistics.
• Statistics Denmark’s trade statistics experts have collaborated with the Trade Statistics Department at the Ghana Statistical Service to compute and publish a Unit Value Index (UVI) for imports and exports for the first time in the history of Ghana.
• A feasibility study on piping data from Ghana’s Births and Deaths Registry to the Ghana Statistical Service has been concluded, paving the way for the implementation of a data exchange mechanism.

Phase II

The second phase of the SSC on Statistics is set to run from 2024 to 2027. It will build on the achievements in the first phase and further add to it. The strategic outcomes of phase II are:

• Capacity development plans for improved statistics, using a combination of disaggregated admin data and surveys.
• Through public diplomacy supporting Ghana Statistical Service’s role as trusted data providers, their capacities to cooperate and access relevant sector data, and their provision of relevant and in-demand statistics to government, private institutions and the general public.
• Exposure to Danish Public-Private-Partnerships within the data ecosystem of statistics. The project is currently working with the Danish data-solution company Cbrain on digitalisation of tree crop registration process with Tree Crop Development Authority for Ghana Statistical Service hereafter to generate statistics on tree crop farmers.