According to Dr Garba Abari, the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the 2023 National Population and Housing Census would be carried out online to guarantee validity and effectiveness.
When he appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria Forum in Abuja on Sunday, he made this clear.
Abari, a member of the National Publicity and Advocacy Committee on Census, said that, in contrast to other censuses carried out in the nation, this one will be made easier by the use of digital technology.
This count, he said, “is going to be different from previous ones.” This census will be conducted digitally to increase the exercise’s legitimacy.
‘’Beyond what Google has accomplished with its mapping, the National Population Commission (NPC) has mastered the space and understood the goal of home listing and numbering.
“NPC has far surpassed what Google had done in terms of specificity and the accuracy of the capture of every house and hamlet in Nigeria.”
“We may not claim to be 100% accurate, but 99% of all houses and buildings within the enclave of Nigeria’s territory had been digitally captured, far exceeding the level of specificity offered by Google.”
The NOA leader outlined how digitising the exercise will increase trust, guarantee correct data, and adapt to new technology, in accordance with best practices throughout the world.
Because there is a standard template for the exercise and everything would be uploaded to the cloud, he said, “digitalization will increase the credibility.”
“In our earlier count exercises, we may have given in due to a lack of understanding of the purpose of the overall process.
‘’One state was compared to another, one local government was compared to another, one senatorial district was compared to another when examining the issue from this perspective.
‘’And in the process, you overlook the programme’s most crucial component, obtaining enough data for planning.
However, he said, “the census of 2023 will be a scientific one; a digital one that responds to the reality of today and the information and technical revolution; it is a census that is focused on bringing in credible, accepted, open and transparent force.
