The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has launched the Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES) Phase Two, which involves the collection of detailed information on the operations of business establishments in the country.
The project seeks to provide reliable, timely and relevant economic statistics to support the formulation and implementation of policies for the growth of the economy.
The IBES survey seeks to measure the contribution that various sectors of the economy make to the nation.
It is also expected that data acquired from the survey would help the GSS to rebase Ghana’s gross domestic product (GDP), producer price index (PPI) and other economic indicators by the end of 2016.
The IBES is structured in two phases, which involve all sectors of the Ghanaian economy.
The project will be undertaken with a $10 million grant from the Statistics for Results Facility Fund and a $30 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank.
The first phase of IBES was a census of all businesses in the country with the second phase being a survey of about 31,152 non- household establishments.
The phase two survey would cover both the formal and the informal sectors including the micro, macro and business start ups.
Data to be collected would involve the scale of employment of the various businesses including the number of service personnel engaged, tax returns filed, and wages and salaries as at 2013.
In a presentation to solicit the views of stakeholders in the business sector, the Project Coordinator of the IBES, Mr Anthony Krakah, said the survey which would begin in November this year, would cover a representative sample of establishments engaged in the production of goods and services.
He said the survey would go a long way to assist the nation in determining how businesses were faring and their total contribution to the growth of the economy.
“We urge all businesses to cooperate with the service when our personnel come to the field to collect data,” he appealed.
The Director of the Financial Sector Division of the Ministry of Finance, Mr Joseph Chognuru who chaired the function, stated that the implementation of the 40-year development plan for the nation could not be realised without the needed research.
He, therefore, lauded the initiative by the service, saying that it would help in that regard, and called for the needed assistance from stakeholders.
Some stakeholders also called on the GSS to intensify public education on the IBES phase two survey before the exercise begins.
