The Ghana Statistical Service will, on January 15, 2024, start the Integrated Business Establishment Survey across the country. Phase I of the survey will provide a comprehensive listing of all business units in the country and information on their characteristics. Phase II, which will start in June, will involve a sample survey of selected businesses to obtain detailed data on their activities. All business units in the country would be enumerated both physically and online, with two new modules: data on the environment and digital finance. The exercise is being implemented by the Service in partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Association of Ghana Industries, the World Bank, and other stakeholders. Professor Samuel Annim, the Government Statistician launching the survey in Accra, said the Service had trained field enumerators to ensure complete national coverage. The goal of the exercise is to produce an updated statistical business register and generate important data for national development. He said data on activities, locations, ownership, ages, and sizes of businesses would be enumerated to inform policy, planning, and monitoring of business growth. The Government Statistician said the exercise would use tablets to elicit information in a timely and efficient manner. The exercise, he stressed, would provide an update on the employment status of workers employed by businesses to help bridge the gap between the labour needs of firms and the available skills. It will also provide data on the informal sector to guide the development of policies aimed at formalising the economy and improving the welfare of workers. The last survey in 2013 produced 638,224 businesses. The 2024 survey is expected to enumerate 2.4 million businesses in the country. Source: Ghana News Agency