On Monday, the National Population Commission, NPC, informed Nigerians that the population and housing census of 2023 will be conducted professionally, stating that it will aim for demographic perfection.
Nasir Isa-Kwarra, chairman of the Commission, issued the promise during the launch of the Trial Post Enumeration Survey (Pes) in six states selected from the six geo-political zones of the federation.
Anambra, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Katsina, Nasarawa, and Ogun states were chosen to participate in the trial PES, which is scheduled to begin on October 18, 2022.
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The NPC director stated that the PES is part of the preparations for the first totally digital census to be conducted in Nigeria in April 2023.
He explained that “The Post Enumeration Survey (PES) is a statistically representative survey that the National Population Commission will use to check the accuracy of the Trial Census conducted in July 2022. The PES will allow the commission to determine how many people were missed, included by mistake, or counted in the wrong place.
“The conduct of the Trial PES is an integral part of the preparatory activities for the conduct of a successful census in 2023. The Commission is placing premium importance on this exercise. As you know, a Population census is the official enumeration of all persons in a country at a specific time.
“This encompasses the collection, compilation, evaluation, analysis, publication, and dissemination of demographic, social, and economic statistics relating to the population.
“However, errors are inevitable in a large-scale data collection exercise such as a Census. Errors can arise from many sources in the conduct of the census, especially in field data collection and processing procedures.
“Census designs can also be a source of error by introducing measurement errors through wrong questionnaires, instructions, training materials, and procedures for data collection. The PES, therefore, has been designed to redress these possible errors in the census process. The results of the comparison are mainly used to measure coverage and content error in the context of the census.”
To this aim, he reaffirmed the determination of the Commission to conduct a credible and dependable census, the result of which, he said, would be planning instruments for national growth through rigorous planning and the use of international best practices at every level of the process.
