Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, the Minister of Finance, has urged the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) to give the rebasing of the nation’s GDP and Consumer Price Index statistics first priority as the foundation for wise economic decision-making.
He announced the decision last Tuesday as he returned the Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) former headquarters to the GSS in Accra, terminating the ministry’s tenure there since February 1976.
According to Dr. Forson, the country’s GDP hasn’t been updated since 2016—nearly ten years ago.
“I’m sure you’ll be about finishing the rebasing of our GDP and inflation in a year,” he remarked.
Additionally, he urged the GSS to create a system for releasing employment data on a quarterly or half-yearly basis starting in early 2028.
“Growth should not always be jobless. Growth must create jobs, and I want to be assessed on that line. Unemployment is our biggest enemy today. How do we fix it? We can only fix it with the right raw data,” he added.
According to Dr. Forson, the government’s economic administration still relies heavily on data from the GSS.
“When I became a Minister of Finance for the first time, on the second day in office, I walked straight to the Government Statistician’s office. I needed to track inflation because inflation had become very sticky,” he recalled.
He said that the government was able to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of inflation through frequent interactions with Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the government statistician at the time.
“Today, inflation is a single digit, and so you have a role to play, a very important role,” he said.
The government promised the GSS enough money to keep statisticians, econometricians, mathematicians, and economists on staff.
“It shouldn’t always be that the best of the best must leave for other places. The best must also stay here, and we will help you stay because your role is important,” he stated.
Dr. Alhassan Iddrisu, the government statistician, expressed gratitude to the minister for obtaining GH¢207 million in the 2026 budget for the rebasing of GDP and the Consumer Price Index, of which GH¢140 million has already been made available.
He urged the delivery of the remaining funds so that the project could be finished by the second quarter of 2027, saying, “That is real money behind real credibility.”
In addition, he asked for parliamentary and cabinet approval of an extra $22 million in financing, which he said cabinet had previously agreed, and an adjustment to the service’s annual budget ceiling to cover utilities, upkeep, and renovations of the new block.
Dr. Iddrisu also acknowledged approval for two Deputy Government Statisticians, two legal officers, a revamped compensation structure and staff migration, and financial clearance for 100 new employees.
According to him, the GSS published more than 80 data products last year and 40 in the first half of this year, including the sub-region’s first monthly indicator of economic growth.
“Ghana in Numbers,” thematic reports from the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) Eighth, distribution of the Multidimensional Poverty Index at the district level on unemployment and food insecurity, and preparations for the 2030 Population and Housing Census are among the other upcoming deliverables.
“Confidence is not a gift, it is a loan, and we have to repay it with numbers that are accurate, timely and trusted,” Dr Iddrisu told staff.
The Minister of Finance received praise from the Government Statistician for providing the GSS with what he called “historic” support, including the official transfer of office space and significant budgetary commitments.
According to Dr. Iddrisu, the transfer terminated the ministry’s more than 50-year occupation of the statistical service block and made more space available at a crucial moment when the service was only using only 252 employees out of a total of 560 authorised.
He stated that the Greater Accra Regional Office, which presently operates in a structure with structural flaws, would also be relocated to a portion of the site.
Source: newsthemegh.com