Household Registry programme to begin in Upper West Region
The Ghana National Household Registry, which involves the collection of basic information from households in Ghana to facilitate the identification of poor and vulnerable households in society will begin on a pilot scheme on August 1 this year in the Upper West Region.
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It is being undertaken by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP) with a sponsorship package from the World Bank.
Explaining the programme at a one-day sensitisation workshop for media practitioners and officials from the Information Service Department, chiefs and opinion leaders in Wa in the Upper West Region (UWR) at the weekend, the Regional Minister Alhaji Amin Amidu Sulemani said it was in line with the government’s efforts to extend a helping hand to the poor and vulnerable in society.
He said in the UWR, 109,222 households have been targeted under the programme aimed at identifying the very poor and vulnerable in society in order to better their living conditions.
The registration will seek to find out their true living conditions in order to identify the real needy ones in society.
Creating single national registry
The minister said that was why the Vice-President launched the Ghana National Household Registry on October 20 last year to create a single national registry, indicating that while all the enumerators have since been trained, the new programme will afford the government the chance to reassess the successes of all the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programmes.
“This data will present an opportunity for the government to really assess the successes gained in the fight against poverty and the challenges involved in the implementation of pro-poor policies. It is therefore, important that such data is collected for proper co-ordination and planning to strengthen our social protection system”, he said.
Alhaji Amidu Sulemani noted that the government had come a long way in the fight against poverty which could be attributed to some socio-economic interventions aimed at improving the lives of the poor and vulnerable in the country.
He said this would afford the government the chance to obtain a credible data to identify and assist the needy and poor people devoid of any partisan consideration.
Accurate information
To ensure the success of the programme, he called on the general public to provide the necessary and accurate information, and also cautioned the enumerators to be professional in the discharge of their duties and allayed the fears of the people that it was not towards any taxation purposes.