The National Population Commission Federal Commissioner in Ekiti State, Ayodeji Ajayi, on Thursday, said the commission expended over N140billion on the purchase of technology and equipment preparatory to conduct a hitch-free first digital population census in the country.
Ajayi, who said all necessary arrangements were being concluded before the postponement of the exercise to further perfect its processes, listed the equipment purchased to include Personal Digital Assistants and laptops.
The NPC commissioner, who spoke in Ado Ekiti during a breakfast meeting with media executives and stakeholders, said that NPC had made all preparatory activities toward the census, said, “Conscious and enormous human and material resources that have been expended in the implementation of the preparatory activities”.
Ajayi, who said that N200 billion had been released to NPC so far for the exercise, said, “About 75 per cent (over N140billion) of the sum is for the purchase of technology and equipment such as PDAs and laptops.
“Substantial part of the remaining funds was deployed for purchase of vehicles, training and construction/renovation of state offices and provision of office equipment. I am happy that work has reached the advance stage on the construction of a new office complex for Ekiti State.
“The most important task before the commission now pending presidential proclamation is to sustain and reinforce the relevance of these activities to the successful conduct of the 2023 census. This will ensure that the nation does not have to start afresh the preparations for the conduct of the census thereby saving costs.
“In this regard, the processes and systems put in place for the census are therefore being reviewed to determine what needs to be done to ensure that the preparations do not become obsolete for Census,” Ajayi said.
The commissioner listed what the NPC had done in preparation for the exercise as enumeration area demarcation, the conduct of first and second pretests, trial census, e-recruitment, training of a substantial percentage of field functionaries, and procurement and configuration of PDAs.
Others, he said, included the establishment of ICT infrastructure and backup across the country, setting up of logistic support and advocacy and publicity committees and engagement with critical stakeholders and exchange programmes with other African countries.
Credit: Punch
