The National Population Commission (NPC) has stated that the federal government plans to recruit a total of one million Nigerians for the conduct of the 2023 national census.
The commission assured that the NPC had advanced a reliable technological innovation for conducting the exercise, thereby preventing politicians and interested elites from hijacking or manipulating the process.
The commissioner representing Ekiti at the NPC, Mr Deji Ajayi, said this in Ado Ekiti yesterday, at a press conference heralding the trial census to be conducted in the state, preparatory to next year’s main census exercise.
The former Ekiti State’s head of service added that nine towns across nine local governments selected out of the 16 LGAs in the state had been delineated into Enumerated Areas (EAs) to ease the trial census.
He pointed out areas to be enumerated in the trial census, including Ado, Emure, Iro, Ijero, Ikole, Iworoko, Ise, Ikun, and Omuo Ekiti.
Explaining the significance of the census to nation building, Ajayi said that private organisations would use population statistics to plan for the recruitment of young Nigerians, as they would know the number of the active population.
“The government will also use such statistics to plan for our youth, students, and the health needs of Nigerians. They will also know the number of senior citizens who should be catered for.”
Assuring that the exercise will be difficult to manipulate, the NPC boss said, “The biometric technology will capture your face and fingerprints and go to the server, and any similar information supplied will be noticed and expunged from the data immediately.
