By Christian Ogbonna

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

The Federal Commissioner in-charge of Ebonyi, Mr Darlington Okereke, stated this at a news conference on the training of the participants, on Wednesday in Abakaliki.

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

He further stated that the training was aimed at equipping the trainees, who, he said, were the drivers of the census process, with specialised knowledge of digital census taking.

“This is in line with international standard and global best practices to ensure the success of the first-ever digital census in Nigeria and Africa.

“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.

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

The commissioner said that the key participants at the workshop included: 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 job as supervisors and enumerators, are urged to present themselves for screening at the local government areas, where they applied to work,” he added.

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

Director of NPC in Ebonyi, Mrs Julia Manyike, urged the trainees to be focused and work hard for a successful head count in the state and Nigeria at large.

Responding on behalf of the trainees, Mary Nworie thanked the Federal Government and NPC for the training, assuring that they would work to ensure a reliable census exercise. (NAN)