The National Population Commission (NPC), on Wednesday, gave assurances that the mentally-challenged and homeless people will be counted in the 2023 housing and population census, as every living being in Nigeria would be counted.
The Federal Commissioner representing Ondo State in NPC, Prince Diran Iyantan, gave the assurance in Akure on Wednesday, at a one-day capacity-building workshop for the 2023 population and housing census publicity committee.
The NPC commissioner, while assuring Nigerians that the 2023 census would have at least 98 percent success, explained that the purpose of the workshop was not to undermine the professionalism of the publicity committee members, but to enhance their capacity to deliver on their mandates.
Iyantan further noted that the committee was one of the most important committees to drive the exercise, due to the psyche of the public, making many people reluctant to subscribe to government programs.
“Because of the importance of this exercise, our governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, thought it wise to assemble the committee with seasoned professionals to have a seamless exercise in the state”, he said.
Speaking at the workshop, the Ondo State Director of the NPC, Oluyemi Falusi, said the digital innovations in the 2023 census aligned with UN recommendations.
According to Falusi, the 2023 exercise would be the first digital census to be conducted by Nigeria. It would facilitate faster processes, reduce error, track progress, ensure efficiency, and ensure prompt publication of results, among others.
He further explained that the training, recruiting, deployment, conduct, analysis and publication, and other processes of the exercise were fully digitalized, adding that the 5-tier strategy being deployed for quality assurance, robust monitoring, and evaluation system had been set up.
