The National Population Commission (NPC) has disclosed that a total of one million Nigerians would be recruited by the Federal Government for the conduct of the 2023 National Census.
This was disclosed by the Commissioner representing Ekiti State at the NPC, Deji Ajayi, in Ado-Ekiti, the State capital on Monday, during a media briefing heralding the trial census to be conducted in Ekiti preparatory to the next year’s main census exercise.
The commissioner further disclosed that nine towns across nine local governments selected out of the 16 LGAs in the State, had been delineated into Enumerated Areas (EAs) to ease the trial. He pointed out areas to be enumerated in the trial census as Ado, Emure, Iro, Ijero, Ikole, Iworoko, Ise, Ikun and Omuo Ekiti.
The Commission assured that a reliable technological innovation had been advanced by the NPC for the conduct of the exercise to prevent politicians and interested elite from hijacking or manipulating the process.
Explaining the significance of census to nation-building, Ajayi said population statistics would be used by private organisations to plan for the recruitment of young Nigerians by knowing the number of the active population, adding that “the government will also use such statistics to plan for our youth, students and the health needs of Nigerians. They will also know the number of senior citizens who should be catered for”..
Assuring that the exercise will be difficult to manipulate, the NPC boss said, “The biometric technology will capture your face and fingerprints and it goes to the server; any similar information supplied will be noticed and expunged from the data immediately. This is the first time we will be doing a paperless census, everything will be digital to check corruption and bring about accurate data that can help national development”.
“Census is a massive operation that will engage one million personnel and managing such a huge workforce manually will raise huge logistical and documentation challenges”, he stated.
The 2023 Census will be a detailed enumeration of the Nigerian population, which will be the fifth national census in the country since independence. It will be the first national census held since the 2006 census. Over N190 billion have been allocated for the exercise. The Federal Government has been relying on estimates from Worldometer, an arm of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, to gauge the country’s population.
