Katsina state government in collaboration with the national population commission (NPC) has held a one-day stakeholders summit on Nigeria’s 2023 population and housing census.
The Summit is meant to get more people involved in the forthcoming national census to ensure greater success of the exercise.
The stakeholder engagement by the state government is primarily to sensitise key actors in society about the national census and the ongoing changes being made to ensure a more accurate exercise next year.
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It is also an opportunity for elder statesmen to ask questions about grey areas to ensure problems.
Already the commission has been able to complete a comprehensive area demarcation exercise across the state.
The need for the country to get an accurate population census this time around can not be underscored as an increasing population and inaccurate data, have led to improper planning.
Katsina state governor, Aminu Bello Masari also spoke at length about the irregularities encountered during previous census exercises and hopes that the NPC will deploy more reliable technology this time to get it right.
He insisted that inputing political interests into critical national issues like the census should be stopped.
The census is meant to help in planning but it has been reduced to a tool for accessing federal allocation by states and local governments.
This summit is expected to bring more enlightenment about the advantages of a credible census and its importance in national planning and development.
