Ahead of next population census in the country, the National Population Commission (NPC) would begin demarcation of areas in Bauchi state for easy tracing by the enumerators.
The chairman of the commission Nasir Isa Kwarra disclosed this Monday while briefing journalists at the commission’s headquarters in Bauchi on the conduct of pre-test for the next population and housing census.
Represented by the federal commissioner in charge of Bauchi Ibrahim Muhammed Darazo, the chairman explained that census is the constitutional mandate of the commission adding that they have so far demarcated 630 local governments areas out of the 774 in the nation.
He said the pre-test exercise is a critical part of the census planning process which provides the opportunity to test all aspects of the census programme and instruments in advance of the main censal activities in order to ensure its success.
“In order to effectively enumerate all Nigerians within a reasonable period, it becomes imperative to divide the whole land mass of the country into small units that can easily be covered by a team of enumerators during census enumeration.
“This in essence, constitutes the enumeration area demarcation which is one of the core preparatory activities for the census exercise. Pre-test is usually conducted before the actual census and during the middle of the enumeration area demarcation exercise.
“The conduct of the pre-test is aimed at testing the census methodology, the questionnaires, data collection methods, the manuals field staff, instruction manuals, data editing and coding, data processing and tabulation in preparation for the actual census”. He said.