TheCable

The National Population Commission (NPC) says it will safeguard its resources until a new date for the 2023 population and housing census is fixed.

In April, former president Muhammadu Buhari approved the postponement of the census.

The exercise was billed to take place across the country between May 3 and 5.

Lai Mohammed, former minister of information and culture, who announced the postponement in a statement, said the new date for the census would be determined by President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, NPC federal commissioner in Ebonyi said it is necessary to safeguard the resources to avoid restarting preparations for the census all over again when a new date is announced.

He noted that before the suspension of the exercise, the commission had carried out all the preparatory activities including the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) and the trial census amongst others.

“We have conducted recruitment and training of census field staff, procurement and configuration of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), the establishment of ICT infrastructures and logistics support, advocacy and publicity activities,” NAN quoted Okereke as saying.

“The most important task before the commission 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, thereby saving cost. The commission has laid a solid foundation for future censuses.”

Okereke added that a new date for the conduct of the exercise is yet to be fixed, noting that it would be done by the federal government.

On her part, Julia Manyike, NPC director in Ebonyi, commended the media for ensuring that credible and reliable information is disseminated to the public on the census exercise.

Manyike called on all stakeholders to support the commission, saying “all hands must be on deck to achieve a successful exercise”.