All is now set for the conduct of the digital 2023 Population and Housing Census in Nigeria from March 29th to April 2nd and everyone has been urged to ensure that they are enumerated during the exercise which will be used to generate data for national planning and development.
The federal commissioner, National Population Commission, NPC Edo State, Dr. Tony Aiyejina who disclosed this during a one-day capacity building workshop for journalists on effective reporting of the 2023 Population and Housing Census in Benin City said people should come out to be enumerated.
According to him, “NPC has completed all foundation preparations for the census and all is now set to conduct a successful and acceptable exercise in Edo State. The outcome will be free from controversies and the experiences of the past.
“As you are aware, Nigeria as a nation, has a checkered history of census taking, right from the first census that was conducted in 1866, to the last one that took place in 2006. Past censuses were fraught with controversies, due to a myriad of factors which we all know. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and it is projected that she will become the third most populous country in the world in 2050, after India and China. It has therefore become a national imperative that a census be conducted, seventeen years after the last one in 2006.”
While acknowledging the bold decision of the present administration under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to conduct a census for the country, Dr. Aiyejina noted that the present commission, leveraging on the administration’s approval and support, decided to conduct a digital census for the country, the first of its kind in Nigeria.
“It was a paradigm shift of epochal proportions, because all processes, before, during and after the census, will be conducted on digital platforms and devices. The census is a people oriented statistical exercise, that is conducted to generate data for national planning and development,” he added.
The workshop which was used to update journalists of the preparations made by the NPC and solicit cooperation and support of the media for the conduct of the census emphasizing on the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD), one of the most significant preparatory steps taken by the commission, processes and methodology, technological innovation, history of population censuses in Nigeria and structure and mandate and how to generate media content.
