The National Population Commission (NPC) says it plans to train about 20,000 personnel for the 2023 national population and housing census in Delta.

In an interview on Wednesday in Asaba, the state NPC’s federal commissioner, Richard Odibo, said the personnel would be in categories such as enumerators, supervisors and coordinators.

Mr Odibo said the commission had been training all levels of functionaries in other parts of the country, including Delta.

”Every local government area in Delta has been demarcated, including the hard-to-reach areas. Thereafter, we tested our instruments and carried out what we called the trial census within Delta,” he said.

Mr Odibo said some people were unaware of the new innovation that would be employed during the exercise.

“A lot of people are not aware of the technology to be used during the 2023 census.”

He urged the residents to make themselves available and disregard myths about the census.

”Census enables the federal government to plan for every citizen of the country, including children, both the able-bodied and the physically challenged,” he said.

The commissioner, therefore, called on the state government, policy and decision-makers to ensure they enlightened their people on the need to make themselves available to be counted.

”When we generate the data, we will disseminate it to the policy-makers to use for the country’s development,” he said.

(NAN)