THE Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) Garba Abari has said the 2023 population and housing census will be conducted with the use of technology to enhance the credibility of the process.
He disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, March 26.
‘’This is one census that is going to be different from previous ones. To enhance the credibility of the exercise, this census is going to be digital,” Abari said.
He noted that the National Population Commission (NPC) was adequately prepared for the forthcoming census.
‘’In the house listing and numbering, the National Population Commission (NPC) has perfected the space and got the point much beyond what google has done in the mapping.
‘’In terms of specificity and the correctness of the capture of every house and hamlet in Nigeria, NPC has gone far beyond what google had done.
‘’We may not say that we are absolutely 100 per cent correct, but 99 per cent of all houses, structures within the enclave of Nigeria’s territory had been captured digitally, far beyond what google can provide in terms of specificity,” he said.
He said the absence of technology in previous demographic polls had impaired the process and resulted in unreliable data.
‘’It was looked at from the prism of one region is larger than the other; one state is bigger than another, one local government is bigger than another, one senatorial district is bigger than another.
‘’And in the process, you miss out the most important element of the programme, which is getting sufficient data for planning.
“But the 2023 census is going to be a scientific census; a digital census that responds to the reality of today, responds to the information and technological revolution; it is a census that is aimed at bringing in credible, acceptable, open and transparent force,’’ he said.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.