The 2023 National Population and Housing Census will be carried out digitally to guarantee credibility and efficiency, Garba Abari, general director of the National Guidance Agency (NOA), he says.
He made it known when he appeared at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Sunday.
Abari, who is a member of the National Census Advocacy and Publicity Committee, said the exercise would be facilitated by the use of digital technology, unlike the previous census conducted in the country.
He said that ”this is a census that is going to be different from the previous ones. To improve the credibility of the exercise, this census will be digital.
“In the list and numbering of houses, the National Population Commission (NPC) refined the space and understood the point far beyond what Google did in mapping.
“In terms of the specificity and correctness of capturing each house and village 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 Nigerian territory have been digitally captured, far more than Google can provide in terms of of specificity”.
The NOA chief explained that digitizing the exercise would enhance credibility, ensure accurate data and be responsive to modern technology, in line with world practice.
He said that “digitization will improve credibility because there is a common template for the exercise and everything will be sent to the cloud.
“It was looked at (the previous census) from the prism that one region is bigger than the other; one state is bigger than another, one local government is bigger than another, one senate district is bigger than another.
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“And in the process, you lose the most important element of the program, which is getting enough data for planning.
“But the 2023 census will be a scientific census; a digital census that responds to today’s reality, responds to the computer and technological revolution; it is a census that aims to bring a credible, acceptable, open and transparent force,” he said.
(YAYA)
