By Ayodele Abere.
The Commissioner representing Ekiti State at the National Population Commission, Honourable Ayodeji Ajayi, has said that the Commission is on course in its mission of delivering an accurate census to Nigerians.
The Commissioner said this while delivering his keynote address at the capacity building workshop for Ekiti State Journalists on Effective Reporting of the 2023 population and housing census tagged, “Census 2023: You Count, Be Counted” held at the Secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ado-Ekiti, the State capital.
Ajay said a strategic partnership with the media will form the tripod upon which the census architecture will stand to reach out to the Nigerian people. He explained that the convening of the workshop for the Journalists across the nation was one such engagements that underscores the determination and commitment of the Commission to conduct a successful population and housing census this year by engaging the media to effectively mobilise the citizenry by getting the people involved.
The Commissioner remarked that the aims and objectives of the capacity building workshop was to improve the quantity and quality of media contents on the 2023 Population and Housing Census and to strengthen Journalists understanding and application of basic concepts in census taking as well as updating them on the status of preparatory activities for the census. He said preparation are in top gear for the successful implementation of the project.
While speaking on the Technological Innovation in the 2023 Population and Housing Census, the State Director, National Population Commission, Ekiti State, Mr Adebola Richard Oladipo said the goals of adopting of technology this time around include tracking and ensuring complete coverage of the country during the census, reduce errors in the entire Census process including field data collection, facilitate real-time data transfer for quality checks within the Census fieldwork period, reduce timeliness and facilitate efficient deployment of resources, improve field management and facilitate monitoring of workflows as well as ensuing timely publication of Census results.
Speaking on imperatives for the conduct of the 2023 Population and Housing Census, Mrs Yemisi Ipinlaye said Nigeria has one of the fastest growing populations, with a growth rate of 3.2% and estimated population of over 200 million, capturing the essential dynamics of such a rapidly growing population requires a regular conduct of censuses, preferably every 10 years as recommended by the United Nations. Adding that the country’s inability to conduct a population census in the last 16 years has created an information vacuum as the data from the last Census conducted in 2006 has been rendered less useful for planning purposes.
Ipinlaye, noted that the Federal Government has introduced several poverty reduction and youth empowerment programmes which are making concrete improvements in the living standards of the people. There’s need to ensure that further implementation of the programme is driven by current data from the Census data that will improve the implementation of programmes targeting vulnerable populations and ensure that no one is left behind. Ipinlaye said.
Highlighting the objectives of Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD), Mrs Falope Titilayo said it’s to demarcate the country into small assignment areas that an enumerator would cover during Census or survey exercise, develop a sustainable skilled workforce in terms of technological know-how and competence in planning and administering Census mapping and upgrade the census cartographic frame to an internationally acceptable standard.
