2023 Census: Senate assures NPC of adequate funding

The Senate Committee on National Identity Card and Population has assured the National Population Commission (NPC) of adequate funding ahead of the 2023 census.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the population and housing census is slated for April 2023.

Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Sahabi Yau gave the assurance during the committee’s visit to a Census Trial Enumeration Unit in Karu, Nasarawa State on Thursday.

The lawmaker noted that the over N187 billion earmarked for the census was insufficient.

“It can’t be sufficient enough. By this time, not much of that money has been released. I believe that in the next budgetary process, we will be able to give them the amount they require, additional money, and whatever expenses will be incurred.

“The National Assembly will do whatever it can to provide the necessary funding through the budget system for us to have a free, fair and credible national census,” he said.

Yau, who expressed satisfaction on the outcome of the exercise described the trial census in the unit as a hitch-free trial.

“They had almost no challenges here. It was a hitch-free trial census,” he added.

Yau also expressed optimism that the April 2023 date for the exercise is very feasible.

“By then, we must have finished the general elections that will come to an end in Feb. So you have March and April to conduct the exercise which is good enough. It is a good time. We should have that commitment for the country,” he added.

In his remarks, Mr Silas Agara, NPC Federal Commissioner for Nasarawa State, said the trial census was meant to troubleshoot and know what is to be expected in the main census.

“It is a pre-census limited activity to evaluate all aspects of the census operations before the 2023 national headcount,” he said.

On challenges encountered during the exercise, Agara said “of course, we have had one or two areas that were difficult to manoeuvre due to the recruitment process where people that are not from the community had access to the portal because of the proximity to the FCT.

“That is one area we have to go back to the drawing board to tackle.”

He said that the commission had taken cognisance of the need of People Living with Disabilities to be active participants during the Housing and Population Census.

Agara further said that the census was very important to nation planning.

“We are looking at how to engage the community, create that awareness because census helps in national planning.

He said, “It helps us to be able to address challenges in the health sector, education sector and how to plan per head for individuals.

“It helps government have the right indices on how to allocate scarce resources and where those resources are more needed.”

The commissioner, however, appreciated the senate for the synergy between them and the commission.

Also, NPC Coordinator for Nasarawa State, Mr Sadiku Bamidele, said that the trial exercise in Karu was 97 per cent completion.

“We have started the process of retrieval of documents, and materials that were used for the exercise. The data has been synchronised into the ‘Cloud’. The headquarters of the commission will download from there,” he said.

He noted that there were 4, 146 enumeration areas in Karu which comprised of Panda and Karshi Development Areas of the state.

“5, 034 people are engaged to work in the areas with 748 supervisors,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the fieldwork of the trial census commenced on July 13 and would end July 30.