NPC Begins Trial Census in Ebonyi Next Week
From Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki
The National Population Commission (NPC) has said that it would conduct a trial census in nine local government areas of Ebonyi State in July. The Federal Commissioner of NPC in Ebonyi State, Darlington Okereke told newsmen in Abakaliki that the trial census would be a “dress rehearsal” in preparation for the 2023 population housing census.
Okereke stated that the Commission is also training over 90 field personnel, made up of supervisors and enumerators drawn mainly from communities within the nine selected council areas. The selected council areas are Abakaliki, Izzi, Ohaukwu, Ezza South and Ezza North. Others are Ishielu, Afikpo North, Onicha and Ivo in the state.
He said measures have to be put in place to ensure the successful conduct of the Trial Census to be conducted between July 11 and July 24, 2022.
He further called on stakeholders, state government, local government councils and traditional institutions in the selected LGAs, to support and assist the functionaries assigned within their respective domains for a successful exercise.
“In line with the approval of the federal government, the trial census will be conducted from June 27 to July 30 nationwide. The timelines for the trial census activities are 12 days for the training of field functionaries in the state. Three days for validation of Enumeration Area (EA) frame. Five days for enumeration of persons and five days for mop-up enumeration.
“The trial census will test all aspects of census operations, from planning to implementation, including logistic arrangement management, questionnaire design and format, training procedures, and fieldwork operations amongst others.
“Others are publicity, payment system, data processing, data tabulations and analysis. The specific objectives are to assess the quality and the usefulness of the EA map that has been created.
“To determine the possible demographic as well as geographical changes that might have occurred between 2016 and 2018 and their implications for census-taking amongst others,” the Commissioner said.
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