The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in partnership with Statistics Denmark has launched StatsBank Academic and Hackathon, 2023 for university students to raise awareness of the GSS StatsBank and to promote the use of census data for policy-relevant research. The event, held at University for Development Studies (UDS), was to enable students to innovate and explore unique opportunities for mentorship, collaboration, and team-building skills. The GSS StatsBank is the first online database for accessing disaggregated census statistics and to maximise the value of the data and statistics in its possession. Dr Faustina Frempong-Ainguah, Deputy Government Statistician, speaking during the launch, said the StatsBank was repository for macroeconomic indicators and in the long-term would provide data platform on other censuses and surveys. She said it currently has over 350 million statistics including indicators from the 2021 Population and Housing Census and a comprehensive set of macro-economic indicators. She said Ghana was the first African nation to offer such a comprehensive, locally hosted tool with census data, adding GSS would expand the dataset on StatsBank platform to include other censuses and surveys in the coming months. Professor Seidu Al-Hassan, Vice-chancellor of UDS, said an effective data system helped government, policymakers, and organisations to improve upon the quality of life of people, especially in the rural areas and to also enhance development. He said improving quality was first and foremost among the reasons organisations should be using data which would support them to measure the problems and take actions for solutions.
Source: Ghana News Agency