The seminar which was held at the Regent University College had the founder and Chancellor of the university, Rev. Prof. Larbi, president of Ghana Statistical Association, Prof. Nicholas N.N. Nsowah-Nuamah, and various dignitaries of Ghana of the Statistical Association.

Prof. Nsowah-Nuamah who welcomed the participants said the seminar was aimed at bringing its members under one umbrella to enable them use their expertise for the development of the country.

A senior lecturer at the Kumasi Technical University, Dr. Smart Sarpong, also present at the seminar spoke on the critical role of statistics and statisticians in supporting Ghana’s industrialization agenda.

In his presentation, he said that the failure to statistically measure, monitor and evaluate industrial activities and process has been the cause of “the collapse of many of our post independent private and public industries.”

Dr. Smart Sarpong proposed a concept he termed as Statistical Process Control (SPC) which has to do with the application statistical methods to monitor and control industrial or business processes to ensure that it operates at full capacity to produce a conformity product.

Other presentations were also done by David Combat of the Ghana Statistical service and Prof. Nsowah on the role of Ghana Statistical Service and the statisticians respectively.

The programme was concluded with their annual general meeting with stakeholders.

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Source: Ghana Statistical Association

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According Adongo, a Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, the governing party has increased the country’s debt stock by GHc15 billion within a period of five months.

“We are told that we are re-profiling out debt and our debt will not go up. The reality is that only in the first quarter of the year, we added 5 billion to our public debt. By May in five months we increased it to 15billion. That means in April we increased it by 5 billion and in May we increased it by another 5 billion. That tells you that we are growing our public debt by an average of 3 billion a month over five months,” he added.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Czwp7AdpKkIHe2yLe9aEZ2ljC5uDRfki”]The MP made the statement on the Floor of Parliament after the Minister of Finance; Ken Ofori-Atta presented the mid-year budget review in Parliament on Monday.

Economy is on life support

Mr. Adongo further chastised the NPP for taking credit for some gains made in Ghana’s economy saying the NDC administration must be commended for laying the foundation.

“It is only under this government that you bring a budget that is approved on 31^st of March and by 1^st of April you take credit for January, February and March. But what is the reality? The reality is very simple. Figures released by the Ghana Statistical service indicate that as at June, Ghana’s economy minus oil and gas grew by 3.9%. in the same period last year without oil, John Dramani Mahama’s government was 6.3%. Now we are being told that when you move 6.3% to 3.9% that is a growth of the economy.”

“Gross international reserves means nothing if you don’t compare the depreciation of the cedi, in the same period last year our cedi depreciated by 0.04% now it did 2.5%. So when you depreciate your cedi by 2.5% it is better than 0.04% where did you get that analysis from? At the end of the day you are taking credit when you are yet to be on the feet. Mr. Speaker this economy is under life support and any attempt to do propaganda with the economy will expose us,” he argued.

Debt stock hits GHc137 billion

New figures from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) show that the country’s total public debt hit GHS137.2 billion as at May 2017.

This was contained in the economic and financial data released by the central bank at the end of its Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

According to the report, the debt stock increased by GHc9.4 billion in three months from GHc127.8 billion to GHc137.2 billion.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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The report, which used the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and Net Enrolment ratio (NER) to assess the participation of children in the educational system noted a positive result towards achieving Millennium Development Goal two (MGD 2).

According to the report, NER in primary school at the national level increased from 81 per cent in 2006/07 to 88.5 per cent in 2008/09 and remained at that level in 2009/10.

GER at the national level also reached 95 per cent in 2007/08 and has virtually remained at that level for 3 years to 2010.

The report however noted some regional variations in the achievement of MGD 2.

“Central, Western, Brong-Ahafo, and Upper West regions recorded a GER of more than 100 per cent in 2010 with Greater Accra Region reporting the lowest GER. Central Region recorded the highest NER of 97 per cent while the lowest ratio is reported in Greater Accra with the remaining eight regions recording NER within the range of 81–90 per cent.”

This seems to suggest that only Central region and, to some extent, Western (89.8%) and Brong-Ahafo (88.2%) regions are more likely to attain the NER target of 100 per cent by 2015, the report further noted.

The report also noted that Ghana continues to record increasing primary school completion rate but at a slower rate.

“The rate increased from 85.5 per cent in 2007/08 to 86.3% in 2008/09 and remained at that level in 2009/2010 creating some doubts about the ability of the country to reach the 100 per cent target in 2015.”

Furthermore, the report noted that survival rate at Junior High School worsened drastically following a sharp decline from 75.0 per cent in 2008/09 to 66 per cent in 2009/10.

In terms of regional disparities in the completion rate, Central Region is reported to have achieved full completion rate of 100 per cent overall and for boys in 2010 ahead of time and is 1.1 percentage points away from the target for girls.

Also, three regions—Brong- Ahafo, Northern and Western regions are close to reaching full primary school completion rate for boys at 92.2 per cent, 94.3 per cent and 96.3 per cent respectively, and Upper West Region for girls at 91.3 per cent, the report said.

The report also noted that the Eastern Region recorded the least completion rate for both boys and girls at 80.5 per cent and 77.5 per cent respectively in 2009/10. The Upper East and West regions saw a higher completion rate for girls than boys with the reverse being the case for the other eight regions.

Using the pupil teacher ratio (PTR) as a measure of quality education, the report observed that PTR at the primary level which increased from 34:1 in 2003/04 to about 36:1 in 2005/06, marginally above the 35:1 target has declined to reach 29:1 in 2009/10.

A similar trend, the report noted, is also observed at JHS level with declining PTR from 19.4:1 in 2006 to 13.9:1 in 2010.

This decline at both primary and JHS was also recorded in the three northern regions regarded as deprived regions of the country. This development may be explained by increased number of teachers relative to school enrolment which is expected to have enhancing effect on quality of education at both levels.

On literacy rate, the report said there has been improvement in overall literacy rate among the youth for both males and females since 1991 with better rates for males than females.

In the urban areas, the report said proportion of young males who can read and write in English improved consistently from 18.0 per cent in 1991/92 to 59.9 per cent in 2005/06.

Similarly, it further said about 15.5 per cent of young females were able to read and write in English in 1991/92 and this improved significantly to 47 per cent in 2005/06.

The substantial improvement in the literacy rate among the youth over one-and-half decades the report noted is a reflection of the effort of government to provide education for all Ghanaians.

Source: Inform Ghana

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