All LGs will be captured — NPC

The Chairman of the  National Population Commission, Nasir Kwarra, has assured that the 2023 census would take place in all the local government areas in the country despite the insecurity bedeviling many parts.

The PUNCH had reported that no fewer than 527 local government areas out of the nation’s 774 councils have recorded security breaches between January and August 21, 2022.

But speaking at a workshop for trainers in Abuja on Monday, Kwarra said insecurity could not hinder the commission from having a successful exercise.

He said apart from having a partnership with security agencies and state and local governments, the commission planned to use locals in areas ravaged by insecurity.

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Kwarra said, “We have reached a point of no return with the commencement of the training for the trainers. It is good to say we have reached the peak of the preparatory activities.

“Those areas ravaged by insecurities are still part of Nigeria. We are working with government at the various levels as well as the security agencies to ensure we capture everybody. Even if it will take us to use the locals in those troubled areas to carry out the capturing, we will.

“We will also seek the cooperation of the citizens, Nigeria needs accurate data to plan for every aspect of our lives. “

He also said in preparation for the 2023 census the commission had introduced new technologies that would ensure the exercise is credible.

“In preparation, we have introduced new technologies such as CensusPAD and CSPro to ensure that the 2023 population and housing census is credible, reliable and acceptable.

“The geospatial and infrastructure data as well as the enumeration form shall be uploaded on the tablets, also called personal digital assistants, which are ultra-portable computers that can run a variety of software programs.

“Based on the above, the data collection in the 2023 population and housing census shall be done through computer assisted personal interviews.”