Tamale, Nov. 23, GNA - Professor N.N. Nsowah-Nuamah,
the Acting Government Statistician, has said the
three northern regions performed poorly in the 2003
National Industrial Census (NIC) in terms of
economic activities.
He said the result of phase one of the 2003 NIC
showed that there were about 26,493 business
establishments that engaged the services of about
275,495 persons in three industrial divisions.
Prof. Nsowah-Nuamah said this in Tamale on Tuesday
when he presented a paper at a one-day workshop on:
"The District level National Industrial Census".
Representatives from the industrial sector including
district assemblies from the Northern, Upper East
and Upper West regions attended the workshop.
Prof. Nsowah-Nuamah said the manufacturing sector
recorded the highest rate of 98.5 per cent of the
total number of establishments while mining and
quarrying, electricity and water sectors formed 1.5
per cent.
Manufacturing was 88.4 per cent while the other
sectors had about 12 per cent.
The Greater Accra and Ashanti regions accounted for
more than 50 per cent of both the number of
establishments and persons engaged while the three
northern regions accounted for less than 10 per
cent.
The NIC
report showed that in the Greater Accra, Western,
and Ashanti regions at least seven out of every 10
persons engaged in industry were males.
The three northern regions had females as the major
workforce ranging from 61.2 per cent in the Upper
West Region to 66.1 per cent in the Northern Region.
Mining and quarrying were reported as important
economic activities in the Ashanti and Western
regions, employing 43.3 per cent and 22.8 per cent
persons respectively.
Mrs. Araba Fortson, the Assistant Chief Statistician
in the Northern Region, attributed the poor
performance of the three northern regions to low
literacy rate and the inability of respondents to
provide answers early.
GNA
