by Peregba Jerry
National Population Commission, NPC, says it would commence the first census Pre-test in the selected 112 local government areas across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, from June 6th, 2021.
Honourable federal commissioner of the commission, representing Enugu, Hon. Ike Eze, made this known during the South East zonal training of field functionaries for the first census pretest in Enugu.
Hon Eze disclosed that the training exercise which is going on simultaneously in all the six geopolitical zone was to prepare ground for a credible and acceptable census exercise.
Declaring the 5-day zonal training open at Mavis hotel, trans Ekulu Enugu, Hon Eze disclosed that the pretest is primarily aimed at testing the census methodology, questionnaires, data collection methods, manual for fieldwork, and so on.
He, however, disclosed that the commission would conduct a second pretest exercise to correct any shortfalls identified during the 1st pretest.
“The pretest workshop is designed to train the facilitators who will, in turn, carry out the zonal level training of the enumerators and other field functionaries in readiness for the census and conventionally in the middle of the EAD exercise.
“For this particular census pretest, the objectives include to critically and comprehensively assess the quality and usefulness of the EA maps already created; changes that have occurred in both the demography and geography in the EAs created in 2016-2018 and their implications for census enumeration.
“Other objectives include uploading the EA estimated population with the pretest population, as well as evaluate the educational and other qualifications of potential census enumerators.
“Towards this end, the 1st Pre-test will take place in 112 local government areas in the 36 states of the federation and FCT.
“The fieldwork for this 1st Pre-test will commence from June 6, 2021 to end on the 13th June, 2021.
“More local government areas will hopefully be covered in the next phase of the Pre-test exercise”, he said.
While appealing to state and local government councils, traditional institutions and communities to support the commission in carrying out the pretest exercise by allowing unfettered access to facilities and places to be enumerated, charged the staff to exemplify the highest moral and ethical conduct for the success of the commission.
Earlier in a welcome address, the South East Zonal coordinator, Mrs Charity Ekwutos Elibe, charged the facilitators to be properly guided while mapping and developing the methodology, stressing that the commission cannot conduct census without testing the data collected and instrument provided for the exercise.
“I want us to know that the methodology has changed. We are not going to use ink and not going to house-to-house but a simple app to make the work easy. The map in the app is interactive and will direct you on what to do”, she said.
