The Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) has signed an agreement with Genkey Solutions BV, a private biometric company, to help in the collection of data for the Ghana National Household Registry (GNHR).
The Deputy Minister of the MoGCSP, Ms Dela Sowah, signed for the ministry while the Sales Director of Genkey Solutions, Mr Michel Viano, signed on behalf of his company.
The nationwide collection of data for the registry will commence in the Upper West Region in May this year.
The GNHR project is being funded by the World Bank through a $9-million Government of Ghana facility.
Policy planning
The GNHR is a register of poor and vulnerable households in the country which will be used by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to select beneficiaries for social protection programmes.
Data from the registry will also be used for public policy planning, as well as research and development in social protection for the poor, vulnerable and excluded in society.
The establishment of the GNHR, according to the deputy minister, is expected to eliminate the duplication and costs involved in implementing pro-poor interventions across MDAs.
She said the single registry was expected to improve on the selection of beneficiaries, which would in the long run make social protection in the country more effective.
“The single registry is, therefore, critical to achieving the government’s broad plan of alleviating poverty and improving the lives of the underprivileged in the society.
“We expect household data from the Upper West Region (UWR) to be available for use by October 2016,” she said.
Ms Sowa explained that data collection and software solution were at the core of the establishment of the registry and added that Genkey Solutions was selected following a rigorous procurement exercise. ”
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Source: Graphic Online