N$706 million budget for 2023 National Population and Housing Census
By Adolf Kaure.
The Statistician General, Alex Shimuafeni this week announced that a budget of N$706 million has been set aside for the 2023 National Population and Housing Census.
Speaking at a press briefing in Swakopmund on Thursday, Shimuafeni said that the bulk of this money will be used to compensate enumerators and to pay for transport.
“Roughly speaking 2800 vehicles will be used. That is where the first bulk of the funds will go to. The other bulk of the funds will go to the 13,000 enumerators who will be working in the field.”
“When I looked at the budget the last time, it will be around N$300 million for the renumerators and N$300 million for the vehicles,” Shimuafeni said.
The remaining funds will pay for the Information Communication Technology equipment and gear (caps and bibs to be worn by enumerators) during the census.
“Fortunately, we don’t have to pay for the tablets that will be used by the enumerators. We just have to pay for the transport for them to come in.”
“We got the assistance from Togo – they got sponsored by UNECA, which is the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. They assisted us with 11,000 tablets. We are going to get 1700 tablets from South Africa. The difference, we will supplement with NSA tablets,” he said.
CENSUS DATA BENEFITS
According to Shimuafeni, the census is the single biggest data collection excerise in the country and has many benefits for the government to plan and implement policies.
“The information is good for planning purposeses. There to be evidence-based planning and evidence-based policy making.”
“The census collects social economic data. It includes aurographic information, like information on fertility, so if the government wants to plan [for] the number of school going children, they need to plan on the number of children born in a specific year,” Shimuafeni said.
He also said that businesses benefit from this data when doing their market research.
“For the business people and if you would like to open a business somewhere, you will look at the number of households and the population concentrated in a given area. This is important if you look at one of the four P’s (place of business) of marketing.”
“That is why the census information is not only important for the government but also for the private sector like insurance companies. They would like to know the demographic of the population like the age groups and life expectancy of given areas which are useful for them to make projections,” he said.
Data from the population and housing census is also used by the Electoral Commission of Namibia for planning purposes as they project the number of elibigle voters and ballot papers to be printed as well as for the NSA when making sample surveys and by the Delimitation Commission of Namibia when deciding on the geographic division of regions.
The 2023 Population and Housing Census field work will run from 18 September to 03 November 2023. This time span will include the enumeration as well as the Post Enumeration Survey (PES).
The PES, which is a quality assurance exercise, is a critical aspect of the census as it helps to ensure that Statistics Agency disseminates quality statistics.
Namibia Statistics Agency Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni. (Photograph by Adolf Kaure)
