Ahead of the 2023 Population and Housing Census, the National Population Commission (NPC) has begun training field officers to be engaged for the trial census in Lagos State. The training started yesterday and will run till July 8.
The 12-day training, holding at the NPC Office in Surulere, is to equip field officers with the requisite skills to effectively and efficiently deliver. One hundred and four (104) persons, comprising facilitators, supervisors and enumerators, drawn mainly from communities within the selected areas, will be trained. They were recruited through an online process.
The trial census will hold from July 11 till 24.
It will start with house numbering (July 11 – 16), followed by validation of Enumeration Area frame (July 17-19); and finally enumeration of persons (July 20-24).
Federal Commissioner representing Lagos in the NPC Abimbola Salu-Hundeyin, who opened the workshop, described the trial census as a ‘dress rehearsal to evaluate all aspects of the census operations before the main census on a limited scale’.
She added: “The specific objectives are to assess the quality of the EA maps, determine requisite educational qualification for enumerators, estimated workload of the enumerators, logistics support for the main census among others.
“The trial census in Lagos State will be conducted in one supervisory area in nine local government areas, three each from the three senatorial districts. The councils to be covered are Lagos Island, Surulere and Apapa (Lagos Central); Alimosho, Ajeromi/Ifelodu
“The Commission to committed making the 2023 census a success through the adoption of technological innovations at every stage of the process.”
Salu-Hundeyin urged the field officers to demonstrate professionalism, diligence and patriotism in their conduct during the trial census.
Topics to be covered at the training include census methodology, planning and operations, use of digital maps and Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI), building numbering and household listing, enumeration procedure, completion of Census Questionnaire, and use of historical events and special population.
This will also be complemented with hands on exercise and field practical to ensure the knowledge and skills are deepened.
