Mr. Thomas Azoure, the Northern Regional Statistician, has announced that due to the shortage of PHC1A forms, the entire Northern Region's Population and Housing Census (PHC) has temporarily been halted.
Mr. Thomas Azoure, has told the Ghana News Agency in an interview at Tamale.
He said the shortage of the PHC1A questionnaire was anticipated on Sunday, 26 September, when the census started because those materials were inadequate.
He explained that, based on the anticipated shortage, he made a request to Accra for the immediate dispatch of 193,400 PHC1A questionnaires as a short-term measure.
Mr. Azoure said that the request had, however, fallen on deaf ears in spite of all the repeated requests.
He, however, said he had since told all the enumerating officials to continue numbering houses that had not been numbered to make use of the time lapse.
He said the issue of the shortage of the questionnaires was a national problem affecting almost all parts of the country, stressing that, "The issue is beyond me, I have tried my best, I have made several requests but I have not received any positive response."
When the GNA contacted Yakubu Peter Awusi, the Census Supervisor for the Mankarigu Area, in the West Gonja District, he said work came to a halt two days ago.
He said that he had five enumerating officials, each of whom were given ten PHC1A questionnaires, but they were exhausted by Monday and had since been idle.
He said the Mankarigu is an 'overseas area' with some communities like Bombom, Sangya, Napengu, all cut-off and could not be reached without the use of life jackets.
Mr. Awusi said he had also requested for the life jackets but they had not been given, adding that, without them, the enumerators were unwilling to go there.