NPC to commence second phase of enumeration area demarcation in 95 LGs

The National Population Commission says it will commence the second phase of Enumeration Area Demarcation in 95 local government areas across the 36 states of the country on December 9.

The Chairman of the commission, Alhaji Isa Kwarra, said this at a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday.

Kwarra added that the exercise was a roadmap to the success of an accurate, reliable and credible census.

He explained that “planning for census is anchored on the EAD as the basis for estimating both human and material resources required for the head count.

“In essence, the success of credible and accurate census depends very much on the quality and reliability of the EAD.”

The NPC boss said that EAD was not the enumeration of persons living in the country and was not determined by the population of any locality or state.

Kwarra said there was plan to collaborate with the Independent National Electoral Commission to digitise maps of electoral registration areas.

He asserted the technological readiness of the commission for the EAD, saying that NPC had deployed high-resolution satellite imageries as the base map.

“We will use the Global Positioning System (GPS) for geo-referencing and the Geographic Information System (GIS) for data management.”

The National Population Commission chairman, who assured the commission’s determination to deliver to the country a Population and Housing Census that would stand the test of time, said the commission would continue to avoid mistakes of the past.

He explained that the commission had made adequate logistic arrangements for effective deployment of personnel and materials in all local government areas where the EAD would be conducted.

According to him, necessary measures have also been put in place to ensure that field functionaries are properly kitted and trained to observe all protocols as prescribed by the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that NPC has already conducted the EAD in 260 local government areas in the country.