NPC TRAINS 150 PRINCIPAL TRAINERS IN SOUTH-EAST IN READINESS FOR TRIAL CENSUS
REPORTER: NDU NWANNAH
The National Population Commission (NPC) has commenced the training of 150 Principal Trainers in the South East zone for the conduct of a Trial Census, ahead of the 2023 Population and Housing Census.
Declaring the workshop open in Awka, the Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Nasir Isa Kwara, said the exercise was to ensure the delivery of a credible and reliable census to the nation.
The 150 personnel being trained in the South East are made up of members of staff of the commission, technical experts and university teachers.
The Principal Trainers will in turn train the facilitators, supervisors, enumerators and other personnel to be deployed in the Trial Census.
They will make up the 13,500 field functionaries who will participate in the Trial Census across the country.
Mr. Nasir Kwara, who was represented by the Federal Commissioner in charge of Enugu State, Mr. Ejike Eze, explained that the training would equip its personnel with the skills needed to succeed in the field.
He noted that the Trial Census would be a rehearsal for the 2023 Census and stressed that the commission had introduced new technologies that would enhance the conduct of a reliable exercise.
Mr. Kwara assured of adequate security during the exercise, noting that the Trial Census would cover the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, while only six Local Government Areas across the geopolitical zones shall have full enumeration.
Giving an overview of the training, a Deputy Director in the commission and Zonal Coordinator of the programme in the South East zone, Mrs. Ekwy Elibe, assured that those being trained would help in driving the success of the exercise in the field.
Mrs. Elibe explained that the involvement of experts and deployment of modern technology in the exercise were to ensure best practices in the generation of data for planning.
In a remark, the Director of NPC in Anambra, Mr. Joachim Ulasi, announced that the complete enumeration in the South East during the Trial Census would take place in Idemili South Local Government Area.
Mr. Ulasi further explained that the recruitment of personnel to participate in the exercise was done electronically and that data generated would be digitally captured in the central server of the commission to promote credibility and guard against manipulation.
