The National Population on Friday inspected and took delivery of 100,000 Personal Digital Assistant devices for the 2023 population and housing census.
Speaking during the handover ceremony in Lagos, NPC boss, Nasir Kwarra, said the PDA device as the major medium for the digital census, would determine the success of the project.
Kwarra said the digital device had the census questionnaire, as well as the maps that would direct the enumerators to the Enumeration Areas, where they would conduct the exercise.
He said that the devices when provisioned with the forms, maps and other digital enhancements ensured that enumerators are unable to go beyond the areas assigned to them.
According to him, the PDA device will ensure that there will be no overcount or undercount, as there will be no gap or overlap.
“With all enhancement that the National Population Commission is provisioning the devices with, e.g the Mobile Device Management, we can monitor the enumerators on the field and ensure that the data provided by Nigerians are secured and well managed for their privacy.
“The geospatial resources that NPC has acquired will be deployed on the devices. This will ensure that all Nigerians are counted where they are and live. We will also be able to collect statistics on housing type and characteristics for better physical and social planning by government for the nation.
“The homeless will be counted, tied to their usual place of abode, referenced with geo-coordinates, the Special Population: nomads, migrants, people in transit etc will be counted with geo-reference to where they are found at the time of the Census. Everyone will be counted because all Nigerians count,” he said.
The chairman said that the commission had robust geospatial data, which with the conduct of a digital Census would aid planning in all aspects of national development.
