The National Population Commission (NPC) has said a total of one million Nigerians will be recruited by the federal government for the conduct of the 2023 national census.
The commission assured that a reliable technological innovation had been advanced by the NPC for the conduct of the exercise to prevent politicians and interested elite from hijacking or manipulating the process.
The commissioner representing Ekiti at the NPC, Mr Deji Ajayi, said this in Ado Ekiti, yesterday, at a press conference heralding the trial census to be conducted in the state preparatory to next year’s main census exercise.
The former Ekiti State’s head of service added that nine towns across nine local governments selected out of the 16 LGAs in the state, had been delineated into Enumerated Areas (EAs) to ease the trial census.
He pointed out areas to be enumerated in the trial census as Ado, Emure, Iro, Ijero, Ikole, Iworoko, Ise, Ikun and Omuo Ekiti.
Explaining the significance of census to nation building, Ajayi said population statistics would be used by private organisations to plan for the recruitment of young Nigerians by knowing the number of the active population.
“The government will also use such statistics to plan for our youth, students and the health needs of Nigerians. They will also know the number of senior citizens who should be catered for.”
Assuring that the exercise will be difficult to manipulate, the NPC boss said, “The biometric technology will capture your face and fingerprints and goes to the server and any similar information supplied will be noticed and expunged from the data immediately.
