Federal Commissioner, National Population Commission (NPC) in Oyo State, Dr Eyitayo Oyetunji, on Tuesday, said that the e-recruitment portal for the 2023 population and housing census had been opened.

Oyetunji said at a news briefing in Ibadan that the portal was launched by the Chairman of NPC, Nasir Kwarra, at the commission’s headquarters on Oct. 31.

“With the launch of the portal, the recruitment process of functionaries for the 2023 population and housing census has formally commenced.

“Several other publicity activities will follow to ensure that no credible candidate is left behind in the state and to forestall misinformation and exploitation of prospective candidates.

“As you may recall, the commission had earlier launched the e-recruitment portal for the conduct of the 2022 trial census.

“I’m happy to inform you all that it was a huge success and that lessons have been learnt and integrated to put up a much-improved e-recruitment portal for the successful conduct of the next population and housing census in April 2023,” he said.

The federal commissioner added that to carry out the task of conducting accurate and reliable census, there was the need for the recruitment of manpower that would carry out the exercise.

“Hence the portal has been launched with the some key objectives, one of which is to ensure that the process of recruiting the needed functionaries to conduct the census is fair and transparent.

“Two, to facilitate the establishment of a database that will create and track the identity of all those to be engaged for the census exercise and three, to pave way for computation and efficient payment of allowances of all engaged functionaries.

“For the census exercise, applications are to be made through the portal for facilitators, training centre administrators, monitoring and evaluations officers, data quality managers, data quality assistants, supervisors and enumerators.

“The number of functionaries to be recruited in each category will depend on the number of available vacancies in each state, which will be derived largely from the total number of enumeration areas (EAs).

“To ensure a fair, efficient and transparent recruitment process, the federal commissioners will, in addition to the existing team at the state level, constitute a Local Government Area Recruitment Team (LRRT), comprising three persons,” he said.

Oyetunji said that the commission was particular about the quality of staffers that would perform the census activities.

“This is very important, more so that the commission is conducting a fully-digital census for the first time in the history of census taking in Nigeria.

“Therefore, having good knowledge of the content of the census document, the technique and the organization of the census process is key to the success of the exercise.

“The quality of the recruitment process will reflect on the quality of the data to be collected and ultimately, the success of the census.

“While a good recruitment exercise will not, by itself, necessarily guarantee a successful census, a badly conducted recruitment process will inevitably lead to problems and increase the risk of an unsuccessful census,” he said.

Oyetunji assured that bulk of personnel for the census would be drawn from the communities where they were residing.

“This is to ensure understanding of local languages, elicit acceptance and remove the huge logistics of moving personnel across communities.

“Consequently, every community will have the opportunity of contributing to the census workforce, thereby ensuring that people are adequately counted.

“Special provision has been made to accommodate the physically-challenged and other special populations in the recruitment process,” he said.

The federal commissioner gave the link for the portal as: http//2023censusadhocrecruitment.nationalpopulation.gov.ng

According to him, the commission has provided hotlines that are open at the situation room at the headquarters for further information and enquiries, that is, 07000236787 and 07000CENSUS.

Oyetunji, however, re-assured the people of the state that the commission was on course and would continue to be fair and transparent, as the 2023 census approached. (NAN)

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