Mentally challenged, homeless people will be counted in 2023 census – NPC

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 per cent 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 to be reluctant to subscribe to government programmes.

READ ALSO:Nigerians not encouraged to move around during census —NPC

“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 was in line with UN recommendations.

According to Falusi, the 2023 exercise would be the first digital census to be conducted by Nigeria, adding that 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 digitalised, adding that the 5-tier strategy being deployed for quality assurance, robust monitoring and evaluation system had been set up.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now