The National Population Commission (NPC) says it has embarked on mass sensitization of the public ahead of the 2023 census in Jos.
Mrs Cecilia Dapoet, Federal Commissioner, NPC, Plateau, who led the sensitization, said that it was is in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to educate the public on the importance of the exercise.
“The commission has just embarked on a mass sensitization of the public on the 2023 census in Plateau.
“A country needs to know its number to plan well, the primary role of this exercise is to provide demographic data for planning for sustainable development and improving effective governance in Nigeria.
“The last census was done 16 years ago, within this long period the population has grown and the government is still using the old data to plan, that is not good.
“We are collaborating with the NOA to help us sensitize the public in the state to the importance of this exercise, we want Nigerians to know they count so they should be counted,” she said.
Dapoet said that census also has its far reaching economic and social gains.
She added that it was also an economic empowerment tool that would directly transfer resources to millions of Nigerians and indirectly to thousands of local service providers across the country.
She stressed that the empowerment potential of the census, which was often overlooked would reflate the economy with multiplier effects, thereby alleviating poverty.
Dapoet said that the commission would recruit, train and deploy more than 1.2 million personnel consisting of supervisors and enumerators.
She charged interested Nigerians to visit the commissions portal to register for possible recruitment.
The state Director of NOA, Mrs Kaneng Pam-Hworo, in a remark said that the agency “which is tasked to create awareness on government policies would ensure that people in the state were enlightened on the importance of the exercise”.
Pam-Hworo charged the people in the state to allow themselves to be counted during the exercise as it was for the benefit of the state and the country.
