The inaugural Annual Forum for Data Producers, Users, and Enhancers has issued a strong call for sustainable and innovative financing for Ghana’s national data system, warning that the country’s development ambitions depend heavily on stable support for statistics production and use.
The Forum, held in Accra under the auspices of the Ghana Statistical Service Development Partner Group (GSSDPG), focused on the theme: “Financing Innovations in Data and Statistics for Sustainable and Inclusive Development.”
The event also marked Ghana’s commemoration of African Statistics Day 2025, celebrated across the continent under the theme of leveraging innovation in data and statistics to promote a just, peaceful, inclusive and prosperous society.
According to the communiqué, the Forum sought to address four core priorities: identifying barriers to sustainable financing for data production, exploring opportunities for innovative methods in data generation and use, strengthening national and institutional ownership of the data ecosystem, and enhancing visibility, accessibility, and usability of data for policy, programming, and practice.
The communiqué highlighted Ghana’s progress over the past decade in modernizing its statistical systems. Notable achievements include the implementation of the first fully digital Population and Housing Census in 2021, high-frequency socio-economic surveys, expanded enterprise and agricultural statistics, and increased application of data science and geospatial technologies. These transformations have been supported by digital dissemination tools such as StatsBank and the Ghana Stats App, which have improved public access to national statistics.
Despite the progress, the communiqué noted persistent challenges that continue to threaten the sustainability of Ghana’s data ecosystem.
These include inadequate and unstable financing, weak coordination across institutions, and capacity constraints that limit the adoption of new technologies. These obstacles, it stated, undermine the ability of the national statistical system to operate effectively and support development planning.
Key messages delivered by the Deputy Minister of Finance, the Government Statistician, and the UNFPA Country Representative and Chair of the GSSDPG reinforced the urgency of securing reliable financing for data production and use.
They emphasised that Ghana can no longer depend on sporadic donor support to run a modern statistical system.
The communiqué also underscored the growing importance of digital tools, artificial intelligence, geospatial technologies, and real-time data systems in improving the efficiency, quality, and accessibility of data.
Collaboration among government agencies, development partners, academia, civil society organisations, and the private sector was also identified as a critical factor for strengthening the national data environment. Additionally, the communiqué reiterated the importance of promoting data visibility and accessibility to ensure evidence-based and inclusive development.
The Forum agreed on several recommendations and outlined a call to action aimed at reinforcing Ghana’s future through strong data systems. These included adopting new financing models such as establishing a national data fund that pools contributions from government, development partners and businesses; mainstreaming data financing into sector budgets; treating data as core infrastructure; and adopting public–private partnerships that create shared value.
The communiqué further recommended institutionalising innovative technologies such as data science, digital data collection tools, geospatial systems, and data integration platforms. Strengthening data governance frameworks, enforcing quality standards, and ensuring interoperability, data security, confidentiality, and ethical use were highlighted as essential steps.
Improving availability and accessibility of data through user-friendly platforms, visual tools, and local-language communication, as well as investing in modern dissemination systems, were also part of the Forum’s recommendations.
The communiqué called for stronger feedback loops between data producers and users, knowledge sharing, and joint research to promote efficiency and eliminate silos. It emphasised the need for investments in capacity building for analysts, MPs, journalists, teachers, civil society actors, and regional data teams.
The Forum also recommended promoting cross-sector collaboration by formalising partnerships across ministries, departments, agencies, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, development partners and civil society organisations to strengthen a culture of evidence use and support joint innovation.
In conclusion, the communiqué stressed that Ghana’s future depends on strong data. It stated that when data is produced well, funded well, shared well, and used well, it leads to smarter decision-making, fairer policies, stronger public services, better use of public money and greater opportunities for all communities.
The Forum called on all institutions and citizens to support the recommended actions and uphold a national culture where data guides Ghana’s development choices.
