The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) will start conducting an economic census of all businesses in the country between now and September.
Dubbed “Integrated Business Survey (IBES)”, it will be structured in two phases.
This was made known by the Government Statistician, Dr Philomena Nyarko, during an IBES stakeholder sensitisation workshop organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Accra.
The workshop sought to inform stakeholders and the business community of the upcoming IBES, its objectives and the benefits to be derived from the entire exercise.
It was also to secure their co-operation and support during the implementation of the project.
The project
Dr Nyarko said the first phase of the project would include a census of all non-household establishments, including those in the informal sector, in order to produce a business register for the country.
“The broad aim of phase one of the IBES is to provide a business register of all establishments to serve as the basis for enhanced policy formulation and effective decision making by both the government and the business community,” she explained.
Dr Nyarko said basic information in the register will include the name of the establishment, physical location, postal addresse(s), industry activity, form of organisation, type of ownership, accounting records, number of persons employed by gender, unpaid persons engaged by gender and principal activities of the establishment, among others.
In phase two, she said detailed information covering all the 22 sub-sectors of the economy would be collected from a selected sample of the establishments listed in phase one.
Expected outcomes
Dr Nyarko said the business register would be published by the end of the year and the sampling frame for the census would also be ready.
She urged all business owners, especially those in the informal sector, to join in the census and provide the information needed for the effective implementation of national policies on the economy.
