The National Population Commission (NPC), says a reliable census will immeasurably assist President Bola Tinubu in solving the socio-economics problems arising from the removal of fuel subsidy.
The Federal Commissioner of NPC in Enugu State, Mr Ejike Eze, said this in Enugu on Thursday during the NPC “Breakfast Meeting with some Media Executives on 2023 National Population and Housing Census”
“The government is talking about palliatives to cushion the effect of subsidy on people and a credible census data will guide the Federal Government in the planning of the palliative measures.
“Information generated from census is also very useful tools for preparing the national and state budgets,” he said.
He, however, regretted that the last census exercise in Nigeria was held 17 years ago until the latest effort by the immediate past administration proved unsuccessful.
“The non-conduct of census in Nigeria has hindered planning for socio-economic development in the country.
“The country has been planning with obsolete data and projections based on inaccurate estimate, anomaly, which the forthcoming national population and housing census intends to correct,” Eze said.
He said the commission was 80 per cent ready to conduct 2023 census before it was postponed.
According to Eze, the commission had carried out all the preparatory activities toward the census which includes: Enumeration Area Demarcation, conduct of pretest and trial census and recruitment and training of census staff.
He equally said the organisation had procured and configured the Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), established ICT infrastructures across the country, logistics support and engaged in advocacy and publicity activities.
The federal commissioner disclosed that the objective of the meeting was to update the media on the status of preparation for the census and steps forward following the postponement said the recruitment of ad-hoc workers had been completed.
This, he said, was done before the postponements through rigorous online process which about one million workers had been screened and found worthy of the assignment.
Eze said, “The commission acquired about 500, 000, PDAs devices for 2023 census which has been delivered to the 36 state offices and the FCT and duly configured for the exercise.
“Adequate arrangement is being made for the storage and security of the equipment to prevent damages and theft”.
Eze added that the 1999 constitution as amended, gave the commission power to conduct census once, in every 10 years.
Eze added that only President Tinubu would announce the date for the census.(NAN)
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