NPC Resumes Enumeration Area Demarcation Exercise In C’River
The National Population Commission (NPC) says it was resuming enumeration area demarcation exercise in Cross River state to begin with Yala local government area after the exercise had already been carried out in Calabar Municipality, Obudu, Ogoja, Bekwarra, Ikom, and Etung council areas.
The Commissioner representing the State in the Board of the NPC, Navy Captain Charles Ogwa (rtd), who made this known in Calabar, Tuesday, in a chat with newsmen, noted that the exercise was one of the pre-census major activities, preparatory for houses and population census scheduled for a yet-to-be-fixed date.
He said, “The President, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, last week approved the undertaking and completion of enumeration area demarcation to show that the federal government is actually ready and willing to conduct a census after the last census of 2006. We in the NPC have given kudos to the President for this trust in the face of COVID-19 challenges and the economic challenges.
“In Cross River, we are about to start the phase 10, and this phase 10 is going on across the whole country. This is the seventh local government area that would be demarcated in Cross River and we have carefully chosen Yala local government area. Last week, we did advocacy by meeting with stakeholders, traditional rulers and other leaders in Yala.
“The phase 10 will start on October 5 with training of functionaries, and will last till October 9. The field work will start on October 10 and end the 22nd of October. Area demarcation means to demarcate has to do with dividing the community into sizeable units to enable enumerators perform easy and effective counting during the census period. They are referred to as enumeration areas and numbered.
“We are employing special technology capable of demarcating these areas, and then transferred to the national framework through satellite imaging. The technology is quite new and that means we are eliminating as much as possible paperwork and other challenges of inaccuracy, human errors amongst others.
“The data that will be generated from this exercise will be the main driver for the census proper,” he stated, and noted that having accurate data in a credible census exercise is profitable for effective planning.”
In his remarks, NPC Director in the State, Mr Billy Eteng, said the country was ready to conduct a credible, transparent and accurate houses and population count, explaining that the Commission was digitalizing the entire process to give the needed credibility to the question of Nigeria’s population. He called for cooperation from all Nigerians to make the exercise a success.
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