Economy

THE National Population Commission (NPC), says it has begun a 12-day training for 95 enumerators on trial census in Zamfara.

The NPC Federal Commissioner for Zamfara, Alhaji Muhammad Mutakka disclosed this at the inauguration of the training exercise, on Tuesday in Gusau.

Mutakka said: “In Zamfara, a total of 95  enumerators and nine supervisors will be used for the trial census.

“The quality of the personnel for the trial census has a great impact on its outcomes.

“The need to properly train the enumerators and supervisors at the state level cannot be over-emphasised.”

According to him, participants will be exposed to rudiments and necessary skills with practical demonstrations of operations in the field.

This, he said was to deliver a truly scientific trial census that would prepare the ground for a credible and acceptable census next year.

The commissioner said the state training workshop for field personnel was part of strategies to equip the Commission with manpower for the trial census.

“The Commission is determined to successfully conduct the trial census in our quest to deliver a credible, reliable, acceptable and verifiable census to the nation.

“In this regard, the commission will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the trial census is carried out meticulously to provide a good foundation for the smooth conduct of the 2023 Population and Housing Census,” he said.

He said the Commission introduced new technologies such as CensusPAD and CSPro to ensure that upcoming trial census serves as a good rehearsal to make the 2023 Population and Housing Census credible, reliable and acceptable.

Mutakka said the geospatial and infrastructure data as well as the enumeration form should be uploaded on tablets, otherwise called Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), adding that it was an ultra-portable computer that could run variety of software programmes.

Accordingto him, the data collection in the trial census will be Computer Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI).

He said the Commission had developed Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) mechanism to assess, ensure adherence to processes for the trial census not lose focus in view of predetermined objectives.

The NPC Commissioner expressed optimism that the knowledge and skills to be acquired during the exercise would equip the participants to enable them to discharge their duties effectively.

While reitrating readiness of the Commission to conduct credible, reliable and acceptable 2023 Population and Housing Census, Mutakka said the training exercise would impact positively on all aspects of the preparations and execution of the national census.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the participants were drawn from nine local government areas selected from the three senatorial districts in the state. (NAN)

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