The National Population Commission, CNP, has set the national population and housing census from March 29 to April 1, 2023.
NPC Chairman Nasir Kwarra revealed this while speaking to reporters in the House of Representatives after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday.
“For March 29 to April 2, our staff will be in the field enumerating people,” he said.
Mr. Kwarra added that the technological tools to be implemented could encode construction and landmass, detailing information such as location, landscapes, among others.
The NPC president, who said his commission would ensure a credible exercise, added that non-Nigerians would also be counted as long as they are in the country at the time of the exercise.
He said the exercise would be unlike previous ones marred by high-tech controversies.
“From March 29 to April 2, our staff will be in the field enumerating people… This census is going to be different than previous censuses. The theory and practice are essentially the same, but we are using state-of-the-art technology to conduct this census and it is such that no one can tamper with any numbers. No one will be counted more than once.
“We are visiting homes to interface directly with the home, collect data, and in the past, if you were doing an operation manually, it was very cumbersome, but this is being helped by technology and I think it’s going to be transparent and very fast and it’s going to be verifiable because we can provide data down to the local government, down to the district level. So, it’s something that can always be verified,” she said.
Mr. Kwarra said that the demarcation of the EAs had been completed.
He said that the commission had opened a portal to recruit ad-hoc personnel for the exercise, adding that the recruited people will be sent to work in their localities.
The NPC president, speaking about the security situation in parts of the country, expressed his hope that the exercise can be carried out smoothly in the affected areas.
