CEM REPORT, GOVERNANCE | With the highly anticipated 2023 general election done with, the next event that will involve every Nigerian is the 2023 National Population and Housing Census.
The last head count in the country was held 15 years ago and it has continued to baffle experts how the nation has been able to plan effectively for all citizens.
Federal Government after recently postponing the exercise due to the shit in date of the governorship elections, has announced that the exercise will hold on May 3 till May 5 across the country.
Like the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who introduced digitalization into the electioneering exercise, the National Population Commission (NPC) has also said it will adopt digital technology in the conduct of the exercise.
The commission through the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Garba Abar, stated that to enhance the credibility of the exercise, the census will be carried out digitally.
‘’Digitalisation will enhance the credibility because there is a common template for the exercise and that is all will be sent to the cloud.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Abari said the population and housing census would be transparent, credible and acceptable by Nigerians as the 3-day census exercise would capture every person, household and structure for national planning and execution of developmental projects.
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Explaining how digitally technology will be employed the DG said that the National Population Commission (NPC) has digitally captured 99% of all houses and structures within Nigeria.
’We may not say that we are absolutely 100 percent correct, but 99 percent of all houses, and structures within the enclave of Nigeria’s territory had been captured digitally, far beyond what google can provide in terms of specificity.’’
He added that previous census was looked at from the prism of one region is larger than the other; one state is bigger than another, one local government is bigger than another, one senatorial district is bigger than another.
He noted that in the previous process was prone to errors especially as the most important element of the process could be ignored or omitted, which is getting sufficient data for planning.
Stating with optimism that the 2023 census will not be so he said; “But the 2023 census is going to be a scientific census; a digital census that responds to the reality of today, responds to the information and technological revolution; it is a census that is aimed at bringing in credible, acceptable, open, and transparent force.’’
