2023 population census: One million workers screened, ready for deployment – NPC Commissioner

The Federal Commissioner representing Benue State at the National Population Commission, NPC, Mrs Patricia Kupchi, Tuesday disclosed that over one million workers have already been screened by the commission and found capable and ready to embark on the 2023 census exercise.

She disclosed that the Commission has also acquired about 500,000 Personal Digital Assistants, PDAs, that have been configured and delivered to the 36 state offices and Abuja ahead of the census.

The Federal Commissioner who made this known during a One Day Breakfast Meeting and Briefing with Media Executives organised by the Commission in Makurdi said adequate arrangements had been made for the storage and security of the equipment to prevent damages and theft.

Mrs. Kupchi stated that the Commission had also carried out all the preparatory activities towards the census including “the Enumeration Area Demarcation, EAD, the conduct of pre-tests and trial census, recruitment and training of census field staff, procurement and configuration of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), the establishment of ICT infrastructures across the country and logistics support and advocacy and publicity activities.”

She noted that though the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration had scheduled the census for May 3 to 7, 2023 had it been postponed pointing out that the Commission welcomed the decision as it would “give the new administration the opportunity to have inputs into the census process. And the rescheduling has also given the Commission the opportunity to further perfect its processes and systems for the conduct of the first-ever digital census.”

While acknowledging the enormous human and material resources that had been expended in the implementation of the preparatory activities, Mrs. Kupchi said “the most important task before the Commission is to sustain and reinforce the relevance of these activities to the successful conduct of the 2023 Census. This will ensure that the nation does not have to start afresh the conduct of the census thereby saving costs.”

She said: “The processes and systems put in place for the census are therefore being currently reviewed to determine what needs to be done to ensure that the preparations do not become obsolete for the census. The focus of the Commission is to ensure that all the resources expended so far are safeguarded and that the nation does not need to start all over when the census is to be conducted.

“For us at the Commission, this is not a difficult task. In coming up with the plan for the 2023 Census, the Commission was not only looking at the immediate needs of delivering the next census but concerned more with laying a solid foundation for future censuses. This mindset informed the scope and quality of arrangements put in place.

“For example, the EAD which involved the division of the country into small land areas was meticulously undertaken in such a way that only an update will be required for future censuses. Using satellite imageries, the Enumeration Areas were all geo-referenced with the coordinates of all the buildings established.

“The products of the EAD are currently being used by other government agencies. The recruitment of the adhoc workers had been completed before the rescheduled census through a rigorous online process in which about one million workers have been screened and found worthy of the assignment. The database of all the recruited personnel including their contact details are available for the next census. The reserve personnel will be available to handle cases of attrition. The Commission had commenced training certain categories of personnel before the announcement of the rescheduled census.

“These training include the facilitators at national, zonal and state levels, Data Quality Managers, Training Centre Managers, Monitoring and Evaluation Officers. The next categories of personnel to be trained are the Supervisors and Enumerators.

“In readiness for the census, the Commission had carried out massive advocacy and publicity for the 2023 Census at national and state levels. The Media campaign was intensified while collaboration with stakeholders was strengthened through the inauguration of Census Publicity Committees at national, state and LGA levels. Publicity materials in English and local languages have been disseminated and social media has been deployed on a massive scale. The Commission will continue to carry out advocacy to ensure that the census messages remain at the centre of national discourse.”

In their separate responses and remarks, the media Executives from the Print and Electronic media gave their commitment to partner the Commission to ensure the successful conduct of the census.