The National Statistical Advisory Committee (NSAC) has been inaugurated on Tuesday 6th December 2022.
The NSAC is a statutory committee established per the Statistical Service Act, 2019, (Act 1003), to strengthen the production of harmonised and quality statistics and facilitate the coordination of statistical activities within the National Statistical System (NSS).
The Committee, which comprises representatives from key producers and users of statistics, was sworn in by Dr. Grace Bediako, the Chair of the Ghana Statistical Service Governing Board.
Before the swearing-in, the Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, made a presentation on the operational focus of the NSAC. He indicated that the specific objectives for the establishment of the National Statistics Advisory Committee are (1) establish an effective National Statistical System (NSS); (2) advance the integration of both experimental and official statistics with practice, policy, and research; (3) pursue the attainment of methodological rigour and integrity of data systems, analyses, and interpretation for both the private and public sectors and (4) harness the resourcefulness of the global data revolution agenda. He further discussed the 20 key functions of the NSAC aligned to these objectives and their corresponding 34 targets and 41 indicators, which will be used to assess the Committee’s performance toward fulfilling its mandate.
The inauguration was chaired by the Head of the Civil Service, Nana Kwasi Agyekum Dwamena who highlighted the important role that the NSAC needed to play in strengthening the NSS which he asserted needed invigoration. He based this on findings from the 2018 National Statistical Assessment and the 2022 User Satisfaction Survey saying: “The assessment also found statistics production by MDAs, Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to be generally weak and uncoordinated making it difficult for the national statistical system to cope with emerging internal and external demands” and “just about one-third (34.6%) of institutions are of the view that policymakers use official statistics for evidence-based decision-making.” He concluded by urging NSAC members “to bring your unique and varied expertise to bear and help to firmly put in place the requisite systems and structures to strengthen the statistical ecosystem.”
Following the inauguration, the NSAC held its maiden meeting to deliberate on its organizational structure including the formation of the 12 Statistics Sector Working Groups (SSWGs), which would operationalise its activities, and other matters.
The full membership list of NSAC is below:
1. The National Development Planning Commission
2. The National Population Council
3. The Births and Deaths Registry
4. Ghana Immigration Service
5. The Survey Department
6. The Electoral Commission
7. The Data Protection Commission
8. The Ghana Revenue Authority
9. The National Identification Authority
10. The Bank of Ghana
11. Ministry of Communication
12. Ministry of Education
13. Ministry of Health
14. Ministry of Food and Agriculture
15. Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources
16. Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations
17. Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development
18. Ministry of Finance
19. Ministry of Trade and Industry
20. Ministry Gender, Children and Social Protection
21. Ministry of Transport
22. Ministry of the Interior
23. Ghana Statistical Service
24. Academia 1
25. Academia 2
