Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Isa Kwarra, has expressed concern over the delay in procurement of materials to be used for the 2023 population and housing census.
Speaking in Abuja at a capacity building workshop on procurement techniques for the staff of the commission, he said the delay might affect the commission’s preparation.
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Kwarra said with the census dependent on technology, there was the need for the usage of gadgets to train those that would conduct the exercise.
“If I tell you I’m not worried about procurement in the commission, I’m lying to you. The procurement of our major item, which is the PDA, Personal Digital Assistant, is of great concern to us. I had to speak with the DG to fast track our papers that are with him and he assured that either the end of this week or next week, we can take our proposal to FEC for approval.
“We really need to procure these items so that they can be used for training and based on our experience on trial census, early preparation, especially on recruitment and use of our equipment, is very key to the success of the 2023 population and housing census,” he said
He, however, said the commission was ready to deliver a successful census without compromising the quality and principles of procurement.
Chief Technical Officer, UNDP, Collins Opio, said the United Nations was operating under the assumption that Nigeria was yet to have a comprehensive census procurement plan.
