BENIN CITY: Edo state governor Mr. Godwin Obaseki said the essence of periodic census could not be overemphasized as it serves as a document for policy formulation and economic planning for the government.
He said this while receiving the delegation from National Populations Commission (NCP) who paid him a courtesy visit in government house in Benin City the Edo state capital yesterday.
Obaseki, assured the delegation of the readiness of his administration to support them to effectively carry out the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) in Edo state in preparation for the proposed 2018 population census in the country.
He called on the commission to partner more with local governments in the state as this will make their job easier and will be able to get more data on deaths and births in the areas.
Earlier, the leader of the delegation of NPC, Dr Tunde Lakoju who is the Honorable Federal Commissioner, representing Edo state, in the Commission said the NPC, has commenced EAD in Edo state in preparation for the proposed 2018 population census in the country.
Lakoju said that Egor Local government area of the state had been successfully demarcated while the demarcation of Esan West Local Government Area would commence from February 20th 2017.
According to him, the demarcation exercise for the 2018 proposed population and housing census in Edo has commenced. “One of our most important pre-census activities is the delineation of the county into EDAs. The EAD essentially serves as the foundation building blocks of the census pyramid and architecture, hence the commission places very high premium on the exercise. In the EAD exercise, no human beings are counted, we only count and number houses and demarcate the areas using satellite images.’’, he said
He said that the results of the EADs would be used to generate zip codes for the country and the EADs would also serve as a national frame for future censuses.
Lakoju said that the commission had proposed the Biometric option for the census to overcome challenges of previous censuses and also to guarantee accurate and reliable data.
He, however, solicited for the state government support to ensure adequate security for the demarcators and appealed to Local Government Areas and traditional institutions to provide accommodation for field staff of the commission while the exercise last.
