The National Population Commission, NPC, has on Monday assured Nigerians that the 2023 population and housing census will be professional, saying that it will strive for demographic excellence.
Chairman of the Commission, Nasir Isa-Kwarra gave the assurance during the flag-off of the Trial Post Enumeration Survey, (Pes), in selected six states of the six geo-political zones of the federation in Abuja.
The trial PES which is to kick-off on the 18th of October, 2022, saw selected states to include, Anambra, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Katsina, Nasarawa and Ogun states.
The NPC boss said the PES is part of the preparation for the conduct of the first fully digital census in Nigeria in April 2023.
He explained that, “The Post Enumeration Survey (PES) is a statistically representative survey that the National Population Commission will use to check the accuracy of the Trial Census conducted in July 2022. The PES will allow the commission to determine how many people were missed, included by mistake, or counted in the wrong place.
“The conduct of the Trial PES is an integral part of the preparatory activities for the conduct of a successful census in 2023. The Commission is placing premium importance on this exercise. As you know, a Population census is the official enumeration of all persons in a country at a specific time.
“This encompasses the collection, compilation, evaluation, analysis, publication and dissemination of demographic, social and economic statistics relating to the population.
“However, errors are inevitable in a large-scale data collection exercise such as a Census. Errors can arise from many sources in the conduct of the census, especially in field data collection and processing procedures.
“Census designs can also be a source of error by introducing measurement errors through wrong questionnaires, instructions, training materials, and procedures for data collection. The PES, therefore, has been designed to redress these possible errors in the census process. The results of the comparison are mainly used to measure coverage and content error in the context of the census.”
To this end, he reiterated the commitment of the Commission to conduct a credible and reliable census, which he said the result would be planning tools for national development through rigorous planning and use of international best practices at every stage of the process.