The National Population Commission (NPC) has reopened its recruitment portal for the 2023 census to enable more people in Kwara to participate in the exercise.

Saheed Adebayo, the state Director of NPC, explained in Ilorin on Wednesday that the reopening was at the request of the Federal Commissioner, Abdulrasak Gidado, to enable indigenes of Kwara North to apply and participate in the census.

He however said that the portal was reopened for only one week and anybody across the 16 local government areas of the state could also apply for any of the positions.

“This will enable us to have enough people across the state to participate in the census exercise and an opportunity for the commission to choose the best among the applicants.

“One of the criteria is that participants must be 35 years old and above for the position of facilitators, while other functionaries must be 20 years old and above,” he said.

The director said that the training of Data Quality Managers (DQM), in charge of internet connection in all LGAs has begun, as well as screening of facilitators for 10 days.

He explained that the facilitators were expected to train other functionaries like field coordinators, supervisors and enumerators on how to use the equipment.

“Those that applied for facilitators are the ones being screened today and they are expected to train other functionaries that are thousands in number,” the director added.

Mr Adebayo stated that the training of 460 CAPI, a computer application developed by the commission for actual enumeration, using personal data assistants would begin on January 14 and would last for four days.

He added that the training of 1,000 facilitators would begin on January 17, to last for 12 days, in preparation for the census exercise.

The director thanked the media for their cooperation and the state government for its support, hoping for more cooperation and support.

The online recruitment process invites facilitators, training centre administrators, monitoring and evaluations officers, data quality managers, data quality assistants, supervisors and enumerators to apply. 

(NAN)