The National Population Commission (NPC) Thursday commenced 2nd pre-test exercise in preparation for the next population and housing census across the country.
Chairman of the commission Nasir Isa Kwarra, stated this in Abuja while briefing the media on the exercise.
He said the 2nd pre-test is aimed at assessing all methodologies that will enable a credible reliable and acceptable census.
Kwarra added that the exercise will take place in 444 Enumeration Areas (EAs) in 148 LGAs across the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) that were demarcated during the 7th phase of the EAD exercise with only two LGA’s yet to be demarcated due to insecurity challenges in the area.
He noted that census pre-test exercise is usually conducted before the completion of EAD exercise, adding that it is a critical part of the census preparatory process which provides the opportunity to test all aspects of the census programme and instruments in advance of the main census, to ensure the smooth operation and success of the exercise.
He said the pre-test exercise is aimed at testing the census methodology, the questionnaires, data collection methods, manuals for field staff, instruction manuals, data editing and coding, data processing and tabulation in preparation for the actual census.
“In this pre-test exercise, some selected EAs in four selected LGAs in all states of the federation and FCT demarcated between 2014 during(pilot phase) to 2021(final phase) of the EAD will be involved.
“A total of 148 LGA’s will be involved in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT and the census instruments will be deployed to these areas to test run their suitability and readiness for the actual census,” he said.
“It will involve over 1000 field functionaries comprising 888 enumerators, four supervisors per state, 37 IT supervisors, 37 field coordinators, 37 state coordinators, 37 GIS support, 6 zonal GIS data administrators amongst others. This is to ensure inclusivity of the census process moving forward,” he added
