Ahead of the next population and housing census, the National Population Commission (NPC) says it has successfully demarcated no fewer than 630 LGAs out of the 774 LGAs in the country, representing 81 per cent demarcation coverage.
Chairman of the Commission, Alhaji Nasir Isa Kwarra, said this at a news conference in Gombe on Tuesday as part of activities for its ongoing first pre-test exercise, expected to end on June 13.
Represented by Hon Abubakar Mohammed Danburam, the NPC Federal Commissioner Gombe state, Kwara said the commission had intensified the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) activity to cover all the 774 LGAs of the entire country in the next three months.
He described the EAD and the pre-test exercise as a “critical part of the census planning process which provides the opportunity to test all aspects of the census programme and instruments in advance of the main census, thus ensuring the smooth operation and success of the census.”
The chairman explained that the pre-test exercise was aimed at testing the manuals for field staff, instruction manuals, data editing and coding, data processing and tabulation in preparation for the actual census.
“In the pre-test exercise, some selected Enumeration Areas (EAs) in some of the local governments in states of the federation demarcated between 2016 and 2018 will be utilised.
“And the census instruments will be deployed to these areas to test run their suitability and readiness for the actual census,” he said.
Kwara appealed to the state, local governments, traditional rulers, community leaders and religious leaders to support the commission in the execution of the noble task.
