Ghana National Household Registry Begins Data Collection Exercise in the Upper East Region

A team from the Ghana National Household Registration (GNHR) is in Bawku West to establish an up-to-date register of households and to facilitate easy access to the data base of social protection programmes.

The District Chief Executive Officer (DCE) of Bawku West, Hon. Victoria Ayamba, in an address to welcome the GNHR team in to the District, assured them of the District Assembly's support in carrying out the exercise.

Hon. Ayamba urged all the interviewees to co-operate with the team during the three-say exercise which would begin from November 29 to December 1, 2017.

Throwing more light on the concept of the programme, Mr Daniel Quarshie, team leader, GNHR, in the Bawku West District, explained that all households were eligible to register and were encouraged to do so, and that after registration, the households would be categorized as poor, non poor or vulnerable.

Mr Quarshie said the register would be designed to enable all Social Protection Programmes (SPPs) to use the database.

The SPPs expected to use the database, he said, included, but not be limited to, cash transfer programme such as the Leap SPPs in Health, for example, the NHIS exempt Category and SPPs in Education, for example, the School Feeding Programme.

The others, he said, were programmes targeting specific categories such as Persons with Disabilities, Girl child, Youth and Active Labour Market programmes, for example, the Labour Intensive Public Works (LIPW) and many more interventions.

Mr Quarshie said a case management system had been instituted to ensure that the register was constantly updated while missed-out or excluded households had the opportunity to register through the continuous registration process.

Moreover, he added, registered households also had the opportunity to update or correct information on the database through the complaints and updates process.

The District Co-ordinating Director for Bawku West District, Mr Nar-Ire P. David, congratulated the team and assured them of the support of the District towards achieving the set objective.

Mr David urged them not to hesitate in pointing out the challenges that could hinder their work in the District.

GNHR is a unit of the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) with the mandate to establish a single national household register, a data base of poor and vulnerable households.

Upper west region was the first region GNHR to start the data collection exercise last year but subsequently moved to the Upper East Region this year.

However, interviews for different categories of positions such as District Co-ordinator, Supervisors and Enumerators are currently ongoing at the various Municipalities and District across the Region to select and recruit qualified candidates to do the field work in January next year.

Source: ISD (Abdul Aziz Abubakar)

Read Full Story