FG can’t afford to waste billions spent on postponed census

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The National Population Census (NPC) has said the federal government can’t afford to waste the over N100 billion already spent by not conducting the postponed 2023 population census.

The NPC federal commissioner representing Ekiti, Ayodeji Ajayi while speaking during a breakfast meeting with journalists in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital on Thursday explained that before the postponement of the census by the immediate past administration, 75 percent of the N200 billion released by the government had been spent.

He revealed that the agency has expended funds on acquisition of the Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), laptops, payment of training allowances for enumerators, among others, noting that the new government would benefit more from the conduct of the census for implementation of its programmes and policies.

Ajayi added that the NPC had carried out a series of activities in preparation for the first digitized census in the country, which he said would be obsolete if the exercise is not conducted in the next few months.

He expressed optimism that the new administration of President Bola Tinubu would approve the conduct of the census considering the importance of accurate and reliable data towards delivering his renewed hope agenda for the people of the country.

He said, “The Commission had completed training of certain categories of personnel before the announcement of the postponement. These trainings include Facilitators at national, zonal and state levels, Data Quality Managers, Training Centre Managers, Monitoring and Evaluation Officers, Quality Assurance Officers, etc.

“The next categories of personnel to be trained are the Supervisors and Enumerators. The Commission will continue to maintain contact with the personnel through online training and mentoring.

“Conscious of the enormous human and material resources that have been expended in the implementation of these preparatory activities, the most important task before the Commission now are pending presidential proclamation is to sustain and reinforce the relevance of these activities to the successful conduct of the 2023 Census.

“This will ensure that the Nation does not have to start afresh, the preparations for the conduct of the Census thereby saving costs.

“For the first time, the technology is being deployed for the installation of Dashboard to monitor the headcount and efficiency of all deployed ad-hoc staff.”

On how the fund released was spent, the former head of service of the state said, “I am sure that every accountability conscious Nigerian is interested in how much funding has been released to NPC for the exercise. I can confirm that N200 billion has been released so far. About 75% of the sum is for the purchase of technology and equipment such as PDAs and Laptops.

“Substantial part of the remaining funds was deployed for purchase of vehicles, training and construction/ renovation of State Offices and provision of office equipment.”

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