National Population Commission, NPC, begins trial census to test readiness as well as potential challenges for the 2023 Population Census.
The 34-day exercise started this Monday, 27 June, and terminates on 30 July, NPC Chairman, Nasir Isa-Kwarra, told newsmen.
However, National Population Commission won’t use data from this test run for the main census of April 2023, he said
Rather, the exercise measures the Agency’s readiness and equally tracks potential issues to resolve before 2023 Census.
The NPC chair consequently likened the test census already underway to a “dress rehearsal” for the main Census 2023 event.
The 2023 Housing and Population Census data “is going to be zero based and (only) from information collected in April 2023,” he said.
To verify its readiness, the Chairman said NPC officials will test all aspects of census operations from planning to implementation.
These include current logistics arrangement and management, questionnaire design and format, training procedures, fieldwork operations, publicity, payment system, data processing, data tabulations and analysis.
To test for potential issues in the field, the trial census will target specific areas for enumeration.
Selection of test areas
On one part, officials will carry out full enumeration in six local government areas of the country. NPC picked a local government area from a state in each of the six geopolitical zones.
The resulting six states and their selected local Government areas selected for full enumeration are as follows:
| STATE | LGA | ZONE |
| Adamawa | Toungo | North East |
| Katsina | Daura | North West |
| Nasarawa | Karu | North Central |
| Ogun | Imeko-Afon | South West |
| Anambra | Idemili South | South East |
| Bayelsa | Brass | South South |
Out of the remaining 30 states and the FCT, the NPC also selected one supervisory area from three LGAs in each state for testing.
Altogether, the Agency targets 7,718 Enunerated Areas for testing suitability and readiness for the actual census.
According to Issa-Kwarra, the coverage areas were “scientifically and purposively carried out to achieve the objectives of the trial census.”
The goal is to harvest information on “state specific issues that may arise for the next census and come up with possible solutions for addressing these challenges.”
Additionally, LGAs selected for full enumeration in six states enables NPC to “test challenges around complete coverage under various scenarios.”
He listed the scenarios as “hard to reach areas, special population, and rural urban settings.”
NPC begins trial census nationwide for 2023 test run
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