BY CAROLINE AMOSUN
The National Population Commission in its effort to digitalise the 2023 Census process has allocated a budget of N2.77bn for internet and connectivity to transmit data related to the census, a report which emanated from the commission revealed.
According to the report, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, presented a document during a high-level partner’s engagement seeking support for the 2023 census in March, which outlined a total budget of N869bn for the census.
Out of this budget, the government has already committed N291.5bn, and an additional N327.2bn is required.
Earlier this year, the National Population Commission announced that a total of 786,741 individuals would be trained as functionaries for the upcoming 2023 census.
This group will comprise of enumerators, supervisors, data quality assistants, field coordinators, data quality managers, centre administrators and LGA level facilitators, with a breakdown of 623,797, 125,944, 24,001, 12,000, 1,000, 1639, and 59,000 respectively.
Furthermore, the report indicated that N134.34bn has been set aside for the training of 885,000 individuals for building numbering, household listing, and enumeration.
The main census exercise will last for five days, with an estimated cost of N12, 018 per person per day.
Also, a budget of N53.18bn has been reserved for the primary census exercise, which underscores the importance that the government places on the census process.
