One million Nigerians will be engaged for 2023 census – NPC

The National Population Commission says a total of one million Nigerians will be recruited by the government for the conduct of the 2023 national census.

The commission said a reliable technological innovation had been advanced for the conduct of the exercise to prevent politicians and interested elite 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 gave areas to be enumerated in the trial census as Ado, Emure, Iro, Ijero, Ikole, Iworoko, Ise, Ikun and Omuo Ekiti.

Ajayi said the population statistics would be used by private organisations to plan for the recruitment of young Nigerians by knowing 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.”

He also said the exercise would be difficult to manipulate, adding, “The biometric technology will capture your face and fingerprints and goes to the server and any similar information supplied will be noticed and expunged from the data immediately.”