By; DAHIRU SULEIMAN, Dutse
The National Population Commission (NPC) has assured Nigerians that the forthcoming 2023 National Population and Housing Census will be credible and acceptable to Nigerians as it will be first ever digital census in the country.
The assurance was given by one of the an NPC Federal Commissioner, Hon. Garba A.G. Zakar.
“The conduct of the 2023 Population and Housing Census is among the most concerned of the country. Therefore, the National Population Commission is committed to ensuring that the results are acceptable to Nigerians. The exercise will be fully digital, so the commission has deployed technology to cater for that to enhance data quality,” he said.
Representing Jigawa State at the Stakeholders Summit on 2023 Population and Housing Census held at Ahmadu Bello Hall of the Jigawa State Secretariat in Dutse, he said that before reaching the stage of summit, the commission has conducted various exercises in the state, adding, “we always consider maximum support given to us in terms of security, mobilization, finance, among other logistics.
“As birth and death registration are the most challenging programmes in the state, we appeal on Jigawa State Government to recruit more adhoc staff and provide more registration centres in the 27 LGA’s in the state for effectiveness,” he said.
According to him, birth and death registration is among the fundamental exercise in the programme of the National Population Commission because it enables an individual to know his identity, ensure the age of school enrolment, be qualified for voting and visa obtainment, while the death registration will give a history of a disaster and give a room for research and prevention by the medical experts.
He also solicited that the state government supports improving and sustaining a strategic sensitization, advocacy and publicity through the use of traditional rulers to scale up the activities of the National Population Commission in Jigawa State.
Earlier in his remarks, Jigawa State Deputy Governor, Alh. Umar Namadi, who represented Govrnor Badaru Abubakar urged NPC staff among other stakeholders to close ranks in performing credibly for the success of the upcoming national head count.
He urged the participants to the stakeholders summit to be steadfast, dedicated and committed to ensuring the success of the incoming head count and housing census.
The stakeholders summit is aimed at creating public awareness, promoting conversation on the process and procedures, to convince citizens and cooperate for the enumeration purposes, to solicit the cooperation and support of the stakeholders as well as to provide a platform to offer clarification and receive feedback and suggestions.
