Nigeria’s Population Commission Hold Stakeholders Summit On 2023 Census In Kwara

The National Population Commission (NPC), on Monday organized a stakeholder summit on the 2023 Population and Housing Census in Ilorin, Kwara State.

The NPC made this known in a statement issued by the Director National Population Populations Commission, Yusuf Sa’eed Adebayo to Journalists at the banquet hall in Ilorin.

According to him, the Commission will be conducting the first digital Census in Nigeria to give Nigerians reliable, accurate and acceptable data.

He stated that the commission has intensify more effort to ensure general awareness of the exercise, the summit was scaled down to all the States of the federation and Kwara State is among the first set of States holding its summit.

Mr Adebayo further explained that the commission in the state has undertaken several activities with the area Demarcation exercises across the federation.

In his remark, Alhaji AbdulRazak Folorunsho Gidado, Federal Commissioner, National Population Commission, said the purpose of the event is to create public awareness of the conduct of the 2023 Census, as the summit marks a milestone in the journey towards the first ever digital census in Nigeria.

The conduct of the 2023 Population and Housing Census are in top gear and as part of efforts to deliver a credible and reliable census.

The Commission remains committed to the conduct of a credible and acceptable census that will be transformational and meet international standards In the 2023 Census.

He noted that the summit is a unique opportunity to proactively engage the stakeholders in Kwara State and get some positive feedback with invaluable cooperation and support, to ensure the successful conduct of a credible and acceptable census next year.

“As you are aware, the National Population Commission convened the National Stakeholders Summit on 11 August 2022 at the State House Conference Centre Abuja The objective of the summit which was declared open by President Muhammadu Buhari was to broaden the national support base for the successful conduct of the exercise.

“Following the successful conduct of the National Stakeholders Summit it has become imperative to hold the state-level stakeholder’s summit. Accordingly, the summit is being convened in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

“The next census especially the Enumeration Area Demarcation, which has been fully carried out in all the LGAs in Kwara State, underscores the deep appreciation of your Administration of the importance of demographic data for development planning.”

Mr Gidado commend Governor AbdulRazaq AbdulRahman for the support he gave to the Commission in the preparatory activities for the next census especially the Enumeration Area Demarcation in the state.

He, however, thanks all the stakeholders, for the invaluable support they gave the commission with a view of giving Nigerians reliable, accurate and acceptable.

He assured that everyone will be counted in the right way, at the right place and time, and for the benefit of all persons resident in Nigeria.

The Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Highly presented by Secretary to the Kwara State Government, Professor Mamman Saba Jibril, said the overarching vision of the 2023 Census is to produce not only accurate reliable and acceptable data figure but also an inclusive and user-friendly census data.

According to him, “conducting a population census is a national event and is the ultimate responsibility of every stakeholder to join hands to work for its successful conduct. And for a country regarded as the most populous black nation on earth, which is also home to 2.64% of the entire human population with an annual population growth rate of 3.2% and is expected to be the third largest country in the world by 2050, the Nigerian Census is bound to attract global and national attention.

“The Commission has resolved to conduct the first fully digital census that will give the nation credible, reliable and trustworthy data which will serve as basis for driving government planning, policy-making, equity, security budget allocations and development agenda.

Mr Jibril appealed to all stakeholders in the state to extend their maximum cooperation to the National Population Commission in the execution of the census project.

He commend all traditional and religious leaders, both private sector, civil society organizations and the general public, saying their presence in the summit is an indication of the commitment to work towards the realization of the noble goals of building a prosperous and better Nigeria for all.

Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Engineer Yakubu Salihu-Danladi represented by his Deputy, Adetiba Olanrewaju Rafael, said the census is not only meant headcount alone but the total process of collecting, compiling, analyzing, evaluating, accessing and disseminating of statistical data’s that concern the people and the geographical area where they reside.

According to him, “United Nations has an estimated record for Nigeria, and they put Nigeria’s population at 206 million in 2020 with about 2.6% of the total world population.

He said Nigeria may find it challengeable in 2023 but he’s optimistic that the NPC is prepared for such because there will be tricks for what Nigeria is used to, which is the analogue system of operating.

He urged Kwara stakeholders to support National Population Commission so that everybody can be counted, and in the end, everyone will be part of the decision-making for the Government at various levels.

In his good will messages, the Chief Justice of Kwara State, Justice Suleiman Durosinlohun Kawu, highly presented by AA. Adebara, said 2023 census will be a break-evil, because it is first of its kind as a digital census.

According to him, Digital census is the employment of technology in the counting of the population of a country, not counting alone but to also know the number of gender whether male or female and religion.

He said, one of the advantage of digital census is that it will eliminate substantially a kind of error that are actually associated with manual census.

“we  all know what happened in the country where we conduct manual census, people will sit down in a place and be conducting figures and names, and at the end of the day they will bring out a statistics that show a particular place, a particular communities and state.

He said if digital census is properly employed, the of problem someone sitting somewhere giving unrealistic figures would be clearly eliminated.

Mr Adebara, however commended the effort of the National Population Commission for making 2023 census a digitalized one.