Wednesday, 18th June, 2025
Hon Bernard Ahiafor
Akatsi South
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to make this Statement on a matter of immense national importance, the role of statistics in evidence-based law and policy making.
Mr Speaker, official statistics are not just numbers. They are a vital component of the information system of any democratic society. They empower governments to make informed decision, support policy formulation, guide effective resource allocation, and enable the monitoring and evaluation of socioeconomic development programme and projects.
Mr Speaker, statistics also assist Parliament in making laws, exercising its oversight responsibility, and fulfilling its representative functions. Consider, for example, a national population census data on fertility rates, age structures, and population distribution are essential for determining whether to build schools, hospitals, and roads. Similarly, accurate and timely statistics are critical for tracking our progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and for assessing the impact of national programmes, such as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) initiative. Furthermore, statistics serves as a powerful tool for accountability. Parliament relies on timely, credible, and comprehensive data to enact legislations, scrutinise policies, review budgets, and oversee the work of the Executive arm of Government.
Mr Speaker, statistical systems in many developing countries, including Ghana, are often trapped in a persistent cycle of underutilisation, inadequate funding, and poor performance. Approximately 90 per cent of the funding for Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the central statistical and coordinating institution of the national statistical system, comes from donors. This clearly reflects the limited values we, as a country, place on our national statistical system. The administrative data infrastructure in the country remains undeveloped, with the coordination and information sharing among institutions within the national statistical system still inadequate.
Mr Speaker, despite commendable efforts by the Ghana Statistical Service, to foster data integration among Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), a vast amount of administrative data and statistics within the MDAs remain inaccessible to the Ghana Statistical Service. This reality compromised the oversight capacity of this House, as administrative data, critical for monitoring government programmes is either lacking or inaccessible.
Mr Speaker, this fragmentation leads to inefficiencies in service delivery, duplicated efforts and citizens frustration. Individuals may be registered differently across various platforms, complication in identification, verification, and eligibility checks. The resulting data inconsistencies increase the risk of fraud and hinder effective policy planning.
Mr Speaker, without a unified system, national statistics are weakened, data scrutiny is compromised, and the potential for digital transformation and innovation is significantly diminishing. Mr Speaker, there is an urgent need to invest in the data system of Ghana. According to the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, every dollar investment in statistics can yield up to US$32 in economic returns through better policy outcomes, improved governance, and smarter programme implementation.
In recognition of these challenges and opportunities, a high-level parliamentary delegation from Ghana at the invitation of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the United Kingdom (UK) embarked on a study tour to the UK from 19th to 23rd May, 2025. This study visit is part of a broader three-phase initiative that includes pre-engagement and postvisit implementation efforts. The goal is clear: to earn data at the centre of policymaking and legislative process of Ghana.
Mr Speaker, the delegation comprised Members of Parliament, officers of Parliament, and senior officials, including the Government Statistician from the Ghana Statistical Service. During the tour, we engaged with leading institutions, including the UK Parliament, Cabinet Offices, His Majesty’s Treasury, the Bank of England, and the Office for National Statistics in Newport and London. We observed how robust statistical systems support sound governance, fiscal policy, and service delivery. The tour reinforced one truth, statistics are not optional, they are foundational to good governance.
Mr Speaker, based on our observation and lessons learnt, we identified key recommendations for both Parliament and the Ghana Statistical Service to enhance the role of data and statistics in policy-making and governance. These recommendations are aimed at strengthening Parliament’s roles in fostering a data-driven culture and supporting national development through evidence-based policymaking.
Mr Speaker, first, it is imperative that Parliament strengthens its partnership with the Ghana Statistical Service by adopting and implementing the Memorandum of Understanding and the Data-Sharing Agreement that have been developed. Doing so will ensure that Parliament has timely, secure, and reliable access to relevant data necessary for legislative oversight, informed debate and sound policymaking.
Secondly, to effectively utilise such data, we must enhance the data and analytical capacity of Members of Parliament and the Parliamentary Service staff. This can be achieved through targeted and continuous training. Building such capacity is not merely a technical requirement, it is essential to improving the quality of debate on the floor of the House, enhancing our oversight responsibilities and making policies that are grounded in facts.
Mr Speaker, to implement these efforts, we propose that Parliament enacts legislation on public sector datasharing models after the United Kingdom’s Digital Economy Act of 2017. Such a legislative framework would empower the Ghana Statistical Service to assess and utilise administrative data across various sectors for statistical purposes. This intent would improve the quality, coherence, and timeliness of national statistics. We also recommend that Parliament works with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission to embed data literacy as a graduation requirement in our educational system. In addition, collaboration with the Ghana Civil Service and Public Services Commission is needed to make data literacy a prerequisite for promotion within the public services. This will foster a culture of data use and evidenceinformed decision making through the public sector.
Mr Speaker, for the Ghana Statistical Service, we propose several complementary reforms. The first is to amend the Ghana Statistical Service Act 2019 (Act 103), to transform the Ghana Statistical Service into an independent statistical authority with a stronger legal mandate to set national statistical standards, provide oversight, and lead the recruitment and training of statisticians across government institutions.
Mr Speaker, we urge the establishment of a dedicated parliamentary unit within the Ghana Statistical Service. This unit should be staffed with a permanent liaison officer assigned to Parliament to directly support our data needs, strengthen conditions and facilitate timely response to the House’s request for data and analysis. We propose that Members of Parliament benefit from regular structured training in data literacy. This should include practical exposures to platforms such as the Ghana Statistical StatBank to build our capacity to interpret data, evaluate policies, and make evidence-based legislative decisions. We also encourage Members to undertake the International Data Masterclasses, an online course designed to enhance their data literacy skills.
Mr Speaker, this engagement was far more than a study tour. It was a strategic investment in Ghana’s democratic governance and our collective capacity as legislators. We returned with renewed commitment and practical recommendations that if embraced, can transform the way we use data in policymaking and national development.
I therefore call on this honorable House to support the implementation of these recommendations. Let us commit ourselves to building a Parliament that is data-informed, a public service that is data-literate and a governance system that is truly evidence-driven. Let us make data work for Ghana.
I thank you for giving me the opportunity.
Hon Abdul Kabiru Tiah Mahama
Walewale
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I would first and foremost thank the Hon First Deputy Speaker, Mr Bernard Ahiafor, MP for Akatsi South for making this Statement.
He has brought a topic of great importance. His Statement is a 360 Statement in the sense that it first highlights the importance of data, goes to underscore the problem with data in Africa and Ghana and then propose certain measures to addressing it. Mr Speaker, there is a saying that data is the new gold. This is not just a metaphor, it is actually underscoring the point that data has far overrun new resources in terms of value and influence, and in the digital first global economy data is of essence.
Mr Speaker, there is also another saying that Statistics are not just mere numbers. Statistics is what make data intelligible. In other words, numbers in their sense will not make any meaning unless they are reflected in statistics and that is the point the Hon First Deputy Speaker is drawing our attention to. That to exercise our oversight responsibility effectively, it must be based on evidence. Data utility is universal. Every single aspect of the economy and discipline relies on data. Without data identity, clarity and reliability we will not be able to plan.
Mr Speaker, there is one other thing I would like to draw our attention to. The maker of the Statement drew our attention to the fact that US$1 investment in data has a corresponding economic return of US$32. This is over 3,000 returns on data investment. Mr Speaker, gold or cocoa cannot give us this return. In a digital economy, we must prioritise data and that is the important point we need to highlight.
Mr Speaker, there are best practices we can learn from. That visit is one of the ways we can learn, but I would want to draw on the recommendations, and my essence is to highlight the importance of those recommendations. The maker of the Statement has actually drawn our attention to some important recommendations, but the importance of those recommendations was left maybe, for the want of time.
Mr Speaker, he recommended that we should implement the memorandum of understanding on data sharing between the Parliament of Ghana and the Ghana Statistical Service. The importance of this is that data sharing reduces the cost of data production. Mr Speaker, if we were to have a data unit in Parliament responsible for mining data, sharing this data from relevant institutions will reduce the cost of data production in Parliament and it is an important point we need to note.
Mr Speaker, the second recommendation was to develop analytical capacity of Members of Parliament. Statistic will be a mere number in the hands of a Member of Parliament if he cannot interpret that number. Without the capacity of Members of Parliament to interpret statistics, data will not make any meaning to us. So, the capacity of Members of Parliament to have the analytical capacity to interpret data is important.
Mr Speaker, the maker of the Statement also recommended the data sharing Act. We need this particular Act in order to address the issue of data fragmentation and also to improve the universal utility of data in Ghana. With these few words, I want to thank the maker of the Statement for this brilliant Statement.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Haruna Iddrisu
Tamale South
Mr Speaker, I would endeavour to be very brief. This is to commend the First Deputy Speaker for his brilliant Statement on the role of statistics in evidence-based policy making.
Mr Speaker, his Statement is timely even for me as Minister for Education. Around the same time in the United Kingdom, Oxford had just published the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP) which was looking at the use of language as an instruction to improve learning of children at the basic level of education. Mr Speaker, the finding which is evidence-based suggested that if children are taught in their native language, they are more likely to do better in reading and literacy. So, I want to commend him but just to also raise two other issues.
Mr Speaker, the Hon First Deputy Speaker is his own authority in law. My disagreement with him, politely, would be the Ghana Statistical Service. The Ghana Statistical Service is a creation of the 1992 Constitution in Article 185: “There shall be a Statistical Service which shall form part of the public services of Ghana.” So, if he is suggesting that we now elevate it to an authority, unless of course he is suggesting that we should have an enactment to further pursue the provisions of the Constitution. This is because it is provided for there that there shall even be the Statistical Service board.
Then, Mr Speaker, in concluding, even this House will have to benefit from the Statement of the Hon First Deputy Speaker. When we are debating in this House, whether it is on the Message on the State of the Nation or the Budget Statement and Economic Policy, how much reference do all of us on both Sides make to evidence-based debate? How much reference do we make to statistics? There can be a debate on the floor of this House and we will not find two or three Members contributing to the Budget Statement and Economic Policy with reference to the Ghana Statistical Service and its finding whether on poverty or macroeconomic performance or inflation. All we hear is that inflation is high or low. No evidence or no pointers to statistics. There can be a debate here on road infrastructure. We would need to know which parts of the country are not doing well statistically in terms of their access to quality road.
So, Mr Speaker, I hope that the Statement of the Hon First Deputy Speaker will be an awakening, even for Parliament. As he said, Parliament must make use of reliable evidence data for policymaking. What is policy? Policy must respond to a need. To examine a need, one must evaluate a particular problem that one would want policy to respond to. For instance, there is growing teenage pregnancy in schools and we want to pass a legislation. We are now being told that the number of girls who get pregnant in school may be 12 per cent. We can only respond with legislation if we appreciate the numbers or the statistics concerned.
So, Mr Speaker, I want to commend the maker of the Statement and to encourage Parliament and Members of Parliament. The Hansard used to be an authoritative source of reference. We have all contributed in debasing the standard of the Hansard with very frivolous references we make here, that a student cannot quote a Member of Parliament and say on this day, this is what the Hon Members said on this matter and these are statistics he provided. When we were students in the University of Ghana, Legon, we were told as political science students that the Parliamentary Hansard is an authoritative source of reference. Today, it may not be so because we do very little research, we debate not with informed evidence even on the performance of the economy or our society.
With this, Mr Speaker, I commend the maker of the Statement.
Hon Kingsley Nyarko
Kwadaso
Mr Speaker, I am grateful for indulging me to add my voice to the Statement on the role of statistics in evidence-based policy making delivered by the Hon Bernard Ahiafor, my good friend, MP for Akatsi South and the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, this Chamber is a political Chamber. Most importantly, we must also see this Chamber as an academic environment because what we do here is watched by almost everybody in the world who has the opportunity of following proceedings. So, it is a platform for education and for that matter our comments, debates and contributions must be informed by empirical evidence that is data, and that is what the Hon First Deputy Speaker is talking about. If we want to inform policy positively, then it means that our comments, views and opinions must be grounded not in our opinions but in facts. 6.09 p.m. Somebody said that opinions are like noses; everybody has one.
But facts are sacrosanct. Our societies are governed and made better by empirical evidence. Nothing more, nothing less. We can have our opinions, but our opinion, with all due respect, do not matter. What matters most is the evidence that we have to shape thinking and thoughts, and the way of life in our quest to advancing world society.
Mr Speaker, our able First Deputy Speaker advised that we establish dedicated Parliamentary units within the Ghana Statistical Service. Mr Speaker, we must also strengthen our research department. We must expand its function and make it more functional and effective, where we can go and get more knowledge. I want to urge us all to be better Parliamentarians. We must be equipped with the skills in research, so that we can convince policymakers in order to ensure that our policies are — Mr Speaker, theories change. That is why we need to constantly update our knowledge and skills, so that we will be in tune with the realities on the ground. Mr Speaker, because of time constraint and the pressure from Hon Rockson Dafeamekpor, I beg to yield.
Thank you.
Hon Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor
South Dayi
Mr Speaker, let me commend the First Deputy Speaker for this Statement.
Mr Speaker, indeed, in East Africa, in fact, in Kenya, in the National Assembly, there is a whole Caucus that recently has been formed on evidence-based approach to legislation. The duty of that Caucus is to go back and assess the impact of legislation five years after it is enacted; to see the kinds of reforms and amendments that they can bring on board. So, it is a new movement in a lot of Parliaments now, and it is good.
Mr Speaker, we are already doing evidence-based policy formulation and implementation. We may not have termed it so. Indeed, when this House is approving the Common Fund formula, it is based on evidence because we use statistics to determine how much should go to South Dayi and how much should go to, for instance, Accra Metro. It is based on the statistics that we have. When we approve the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) formula, it is based on the statistics that we have. In the same way, when we approve the other formulas that we do, we use statistics. In setting up health infrastructure, building hospitals, we look at how many patients — We project that if we build this hospital, it is expected that this number of patients will patronise it over a period. So, it is such a formidable thing to adopt in all Parliaments, including the Parliament of Ghana.
Mr Speaker, indeed, in 2009, the USA, Congress actually proceeded to adopt nine ways of drafting federal legislations that are based on evidence and it has become a guide for the National Congress in drafting their legislation. It is a new movement. I am happy that Leadership got the opportunity to participate in this seminar. I am happy that they brought a Report back. Going forward, as part of the reforms in our legislations, this will be introduced. Laws are not enacted in vacuo. In imposing tax laws, it is based on the numbers; how many people pay taxes. Parliament does not just formulate a taxation law for the people. We know that if we do that, the number of people who pay taxes will be great.
Mr Speaker, in transportation, if government constructs a road, we are able to project that; if government constructs an asphalt road of over 100 kilometres, the number of passengers that will use the road and pay toll will be such that government will be able to recoup the money spent on it. Before building courthouses, we will be able to determine and project the number of cases that will come before the judges. Mr Speaker, I want to thank the maker of the Statement once again and pray that Leadership will essentially adopt the approach being urged on us in enacting our legislations.
With these few words, Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity.
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