The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) is pushing for the enactment of a law that will force companies and institutions to submit data to the statistical service at a specific period for the computation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures.
The call follows frustrations expressed by the statistical service that the data collectors often do not provide complete data at the time is required.
This was evidenced when the third quarter’s revised growth of 4.9 percent largely deviated from the provisional rate of 0.3 percent.
Deputy Government statistician, Asuo Afram tells Citi Business News this was because the data initially gotten was incomplete.
He recommends a law be enacted for a deadline for submission of data to his outfit.
“We receive the data from companies and sometimes they give us a hell of time. Usually if we don’t have the data, we normally estimate, but the estimates are not the best”, he said.
According to Asuo Afram, “in Cote D’Ivoire all the companies are required by law to send annual accounts to the statistics office. So with that, the statistical service can work easily as compared to us who send letters that we want information. We also send reminders upon reminders. Some of them, even after the reminders they do not bring the data.”
By: Anim Kwaku Boadu/citifmonline.com/Ghana