National Population Commission (NPC) has trained 851 facilitators and a special workforce ahead of the housing census.

The federal commissioner in charge of Ebonyi, Darlington Okereke, stated this at a news conference on the training of the participants on Wednesday in Abakaliki.

“In furtherance of the preparation for a hitch-free, reliable, credible and acceptable 2023 Population and Housing Census, NPC has organised a 13-day training for special workforce and a 10-day training for facilitators in the state,” he said.

Mr Okereke said the trainees were drawn from all 13 local government areas of the state.

“The training, which started on January 27 and 30, respectively, will both end on February 5,” he said.

The commissioner said the key participants at the workshop included the zonal coordinator, zonal field coordinator, state coordinator, field coordinator, and trainers, amongst others.

Others were monitoring and evaluation officers, training centre managers and data quality managers.

In another development, the commission has commenced the screening exercise for supervisors and enumerators for the census in the state.

“The requirement for the screening exercise include NPC ID Code, Original Credentials of Applicants and NIN.

“All Ebony people, who applied for NPC ad hoc jobs as supervisors and enumerators, are urged to present themselves for screening at the local government areas where they applied to work,” he added.

Mr Okereke said all hands must be on deck to achieve reliable, credible, verifiable and acceptable data in the state and Nigeria.

Director of NPC in Ebonyi, Julia Manyike, urged the trainees to focus and work hard for a successful headcount in the state and Nigeria.

(NAN)