From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
The National Population Commission (NPC), has said that it is going to use a total of 13,500 field functionaries for the upcoming trial census in Nigeria.
The field functionaries comprises of 11,510Enumerators, 1,529 Supervisors and 823 facilities for the trial Census toward 2023 population and Housing Census.
The Chairman National Population Commission, Nasir Isa Kwarra made this known on Monday during the flagg off ceremony of state level trial Census training in Lokoja, Kogi state.
The chairman who was represented by the Federal commissioner of the Commission in Kogi state, Professor Jimoh Habibat Isah said the trial Census will cover thirty six states and federal capital territory
He assured that the trial census will be carried out meticulously, professionally and scientifically to provide a good foundation for the smooth conduct of the 2023 population and Housing Census.
He said that six Local Government Areas will be selected from six states in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria for full population enumeration while forty-five EAs shall be selected each from the remaining thirty states and FCT.
“In total, four thousand, six hundred and eight EAs have been selected for this trial Census to test run their suitability and readiness for the actual census.
“The quality of the personnel for the trial Census has a great impact on its outcomes. The need to properly train the enumerators and supervisors at the state level cannot be over emphasized,” he stressed.
According to him, the Commission is determined to successfully conduct the trial Census in their quest to deliver a credible, reliable, acceptable and verifiable census to the nation.
He further disclosed that the Commission has introduced new technologies such as Census PAD and CSP to ensure that the upcoming Trial census serves as a good rehearsal that will make the 2023 population and Housing Census credible, reliable and acceptable.
“To ensure that the trial Census does not lose focus in view of predetermined objectives and processes, Monitoring and Evaluation instruments have been developed to assess the extent to which objectives are being met or not and whether the processes are being adhered to or not.