Census: FG Approves N14.5bn For Completion Of EAD In 546 LGAs
The Federal Government (FG) has approved the sum of N10billion for the continuation of the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) pre-census exercise in the remaining 546 local Government Areas of the country.
The EAD involves delineating the entire land area of the country into small geographical and demographic units.
Speaking in Abuja at a briefing on the continuation of the EAD, the Acting Chairman,National Population Commission (NPC), Dr Eyitayo Oyetunji, on Monday, said in addition to the approval, President Muhammadu Buhari also approved an additional N4.5billion to be included in the 2021 budget.
His words: “Mr President has reaffirmed his commitment towards the successful completion of the EAD and indeed towards conduct of the next census by approving the release of the total sum of N10bn for the continuation of the EAD in the remaining 546 LGA of the country.
“The President has graciously followed this up by a further approval of an additional N4.5billion to be included in the 2021 budget for the completion of the exercise as part of the preparation for the next census.”
He explained that credible and accurate census is dependent on the quality and reliability of the EAD.
However, he stressed that the exercise is not enumeration of persons in the country;”and its outcome is in no way the determinant of the population of any locality, LGA or State.”
“The EAD is a preparatory activity for actual census enumeration. Hence, although the EAD is the foundation on which the entire census architecture is built, it should not be equated with the census which is the building itself,” he added.
Oyetunji further noted that the Commission has also deployed the latest technology for the 10th phase of the exercise.
Some of these, he listed to include the use of high-Resolution satellite imagery as the base map for the exercise, the use of Global Positioning (GPS) for Geo-referencing and use of Geographic Information Science(GIS) for data management.
He reiterated the Commission’s commitment towards completion of the EAD by 2021 first quarter and conduct of the next census.
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