Why census should hold in 2023

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National Population Commission (NPC) has said that the national population and housing census exercise should hold this year to ensure that the exercise complies with international best practices.

“If our national population and housing census exercise exceeds this year, it means it’s expired because it has to comply with international best practices in terms of technology, timeline, among other variables”, the federal commissioner of the NPC in Kwara state, Alhaji AbdulRazaq Folorunso Gidado said in Ilorin on Tuesday.

Speaking during a breakfast meeting with media executives in Ilorin, the NPC federal commissioner said that the commission was ready to deliver an acceptable and verifiable digital census in the country.

“The NPC is set to ensure the national population and housing census holds this year.

Postponement of the exercise was not because the NPC was not ready as every arrangement had been made.

“It is not that we’re likely to go back to training processes already carried out. We will only go through the necessary ones remaining. The exercise must be done properly because billions of naira have gone into it already. There’s every need to go ahead with the exercise.

“No date has been fixed yet for the conduct of the exercise but we believe that in no distant time, the date will be given. Anytime we’re called upon, we’re ready,” he said.

He advised that all the resources so far put into the preparation should not be allowed to go down the drain.

Alhaji Gidado, who said that a forum of the NPC Federal Commissioners in the country had commenced consultations with the Presidency on the need to allow the national census to hold this year, added that the exercise was capable of addressing myriads of national problems and agitations from various parts of the federation.

He explained that the national census was supposed to be held every 10 years according to the United Nations standard, adding that Nigeria held its national census almost 17 years ago.

The Kwara state NPC federal commissioner also said that a total number of 18,000 ad-hoc functionaries had been recruited for the exercise in the state, including 913 facilitators to train at LG levels, 14,026 enumerators, 466
Special Work Force (SWF), data quality managers (DQM) as well as training centre coordinators.

While soliciting support of journalists in the state for the task ahead, Alhaji Gidado called for media support on the exercise that was meant to be digital, saying that message on mode and reason for the exercise should get to grassroots.

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