The National Population Commission, NPC, has concluded arrangements to conduct a trial census in 7,468 Enumeration Areas across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

According to the NPC’s Federal Commissioner, Bala Almu Banye, 13,500 field functionaries have been engaged to conduct the trial census in the enumeration areas scheduled to hold on June 30th, 2022.

Banye disclosed this on Wednesday at the Old Government House Banquet Hall in Katsina during the closing of the North-West Zonal training organised for principal trainers for the exercise.

He further assured Nigerians and the international communities of the commission’s readiness to conduct a credible, reliable, and acceptable 2023 population and housing census.

The NPC commissioner said in total, 7,468 EAs have been selected for the trial census to test run their suitability and readiness for the actual census.

“The training of the principal trainers, who are mostly academics and NPC’s staff, was part of preparations for the 2023 population and housing census.

“NPC will use a total of 13,500 field functionaries comprising 11,510 enumerators, 1,529 supervisors, and 823 facilitators for the trial census.

“The quality of the personnel for the census has a great impact on its outcome. The need to properly train the facilitators who will in turn train the supervisors and the enumerators at the state level cannot be over-emphasized.”

Banye stated that participants at the workshop would re-evaluate the skills and practical demonstration of operations on the field for the next few days.

“This is with the overall effort to deliver a truly scientific trial census that can prepare the ground for a credible and acceptable exercise next year.

“The conduct of the zonal training workshop for facilitators is, therefore, our strategy for making sure that there is a solid base for the state-level training for the trial census,” he said.

Banye further explained that monitoring and evaluation instruments had been developed to ensure that the exercise focused on predetermined objectives and processes.

Such instruments, he explained, are to assess the extent to which objectives are being met or not, and whether the processes are adhered to or not.

Earlier in his welcome address, the State NPC’s Director in Katsina State, Alhaji Bala Idris Mairuwa, explained that 14 participants were selected from each of the seven states of Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Jigawa, and Kaduna.