By Francis Ekeh
The National Population Commission (NPC) has fixed the national population and housing census for March 29 to April 1, 2023.
The NPC Chairman, Nasir Kwarra, disclosed this while speaking with State House reporters after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday, January 20, 2023.
“By March 29 to April 2, our staff will be in the field enumerating people,” he said.
Kwarra added that the technological tools to be deployed would be able to code building and landmass, detailing information such as location, and landscapes among others.
The NPC chairman, who said his commission would ensure a credible exercise, added that non-Nigerians would equally be counted so long as they are in the country at the time of the exercise.
Kwarra said the exercise would be different from the previous ones marred by controversies with high-end technology.
His words, “From March 29 to April 2, our staff will be in the field enumerating people… This census is going to be different from past censuses. The theory and practice is essentially the same, but we are using high-end technology to conduct this census and it is such that nobody can tamper with any figure. Nobody will be counted more than once.
“We are visiting households to do direct interface with the household, collect data and in the past, if you are doing an operational manually, it is very cumbersome, but this is being aided by technology and I believe it is going to be transparent and very fast and it is going to be verifiable because we are able to provide data up to local government, up to wards level. So, it is something that you can always verify.”
The NPC chairman said the demarcation of enumerations areas had been completed.
He said a portal had been opened by the commission to recruit ad-hoc staff for the conduct of the exercise, adding that people recruited will be deployed to work in their localities.
While speaking on the security situation in parts of the country, The NPC chairman, expressed hope that the exercise could be conducted smoothly in the areas affected.