Africa-Press – Liberia. The Budget Committee of the House of Representatives is expected to decide the fate of the 2022 Census, having postponed it four times, between 2018 to 2021 as a result of limited funds.
The Census was postponed because of a plea from President George Weah, through a communication craving the indulgence of the Legislature to postpone the Census from 2021 to 2022 as a result of the inability of the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), to appropriately conduct the census then.
Director-General Prof. Francis F. Wreh and his team at LISGIS are appealing for an additional US$12.5 million in the budget despite the allocation of US$2.7 million for the census in March 2022 and lease for three – years a new headquarters, LISGIS HOUSE.
The Liberia Census 2022 will be conducted by LIGIS with technical support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). About 76 percent of the UNFPA funding comes from the Government of Sweden, the Government of Ireland, the World Bank, and the United Nations.
The House’s Budget Committee is composed of 15 members of the Ways, Means, Finance, and Development Planning and three selected members from the Public Account & Expenditure Committee, who are serving as Resource Members. The Committee is chaired by Montserrado County District #5 Representative Thomas P. Fallah and co-chair by Sinoe County District #3 Representative Matthew Zayzay.
Meanwhile, if the March 2022 Census is successful, it will be the fifth in Liberia’s 172-year history, which is expected to reveal the rate of the country’s constantly growing population.
The first four modern censuses in 1962, 1974, 1984, and 2008 revealed how the population had increased differently beginning at 1.1 million, 1.5, 2.1, and 3.5 million respectively. This round of census was postponed in violation of Article 39 of the Constitution, which states: “The Legislature shall cause a census of the Republic to be undertaken every ten years.”
This is expected to be the first census to use digital technology at all phases of preparation, geographic planning, census-taking, data management, processing, tabulation, publication, archiving and dissemination, according to Professor Francis Fonanyeneh Wreh, Director-General, Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), the arm of the Liberian Government statutorily responsible for this exercise.”
Should the census be conducted, the data will be used for reapportioning of electoral (Legislative) districts in the House of Representatives and will also determine how many seats each County will have for the following 10 years.
For More News And Analysis About Liberia Follow Africa-Press
