Getting 2023 census right is a necessary task —NPC boss

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

The Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Isa Kwarra, has declared that getting the 2023 Population and Housing Census right is a task that must be done.

Kwarra stated this yesterday during a press briefing on the commencement of the Trial Post Enumeration Survey (PES).

He said the trial PES will be carried out from 18th to 29th October 2022.

“To this end, the Commission has painstakingly selected and trained PES Enumerators and other PES Functionaries in 6 LGAs of the 6 States where the PES is to take place. The training was rigorous with an intended high-quality output from the personnel and the adoption of the slogan, “Zero Tolerance for Error,”

“The Trial PES will be carried out from 18th to 29th October 2022 and will be conducted in 127 Enumeration Areas in one (1) LGA in one (1) State in each of the Six (6) geo-political Zones”.

He said the Commission is committed to ensuring that everything about the census is done rightly and professionally.

“We have the clear vision, commitment and professional capacity to deliver on this historic mandate.”

Speaking further on PES, he said it is a statistically representative survey that the National Population Commission will use to check the accuracy of the Trial Census conducted in July 2022.

“The PES will allow the commission to determine how many people were missed, included by mistake, or counted in the wrong place.

“The conduct of the Trial PES is an integral part of the preparatory activities for the conduct of a successful census in 2023. “

He said the objectives of the Trial PES are;

“To measure Coverage error due to either under‐coverage or over‐coverage of persons and in some cases households/housing units in the Trial Census.

“To determine content errors through measuring levels of agreement in responses to questions on selected characteristics, such as sex, age, marital status, relationship to reference person or head of household.

“To identify procedural and conceptual limitations in the Census which need improvement in future Censuses and large‐scale surveys.

“To provide a statistical basis for adjustment of Trial Census results based on net coverage rates.

“To achieve the outlined objectives of the PES, the Commission has constituted an independent Team and saddled it with the responsibility of preparing and conducting the 2023 PES which will take place shortly after the conduct of the 2023 digital Population and Housing Census.”