Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Namibia Statistics Agency has announced that the Population and Housing Census will enter the matching and reconciliation phase to determine the accuracy of census data and ensure everyone has been counted. This was shared by the Statistician General, Alex Shimuafeni, who explained that the post-enumeration survey consists of three phases. He added that the main enumeration, which concluded on 24 November, will now be followed by the Matching phase from 11 December 2023 to 19 January 2024. This is an office-based exercise in which matchers will compare the Census and PES results to assess if the data correspond.
“If any discrepancies are found during the matching process, such as differential data records of Census and Post Enumeration Survey (PES) on the same household, the PES then has the third phase called Reconciliation Phase from 01 to 14 February 2024. NSA officials will have to go back to the households that are not matching to determine the actual match status. The households will be contacted either in person or telephonically. The PES serves to guarantee accurate and reliable data,” Shimuafeni said.
He further added that to ensure a full count of the population, the NSA also had a mop-up period, an open call to all the people whose households had not been enumerated to contact the NSA and schedule an appointment so that their household got counted. “The Mop-Up period had to be extended until the 5th of November 2023 in a few regions as per the public member calls and email requests to be enumerated. The cellphone numbers of the 14 Regional Statisticians, along with their email addresses and the 2023-census email address, were made available for enumeration appointments per region,” Shimuafeni said.
The Statistician General also said that for the first time, Namibia conducted a modern and digital census whereby tablets were used to collect the census data from the population. Shimuafeni said that the NSA deployed 12,970 tablets to all regions, and only 22 were lost countrywide. He said that this is due to robust controls and security measures put in place to safeguard the tablets. “The public is hereby assured that all data that was on the lost devices was fully encrypted, and no data leaks/breach have been experienced. The NSA would also like to thank the field staff for handling the census gadgets responsibly. Furthermore, NSA would like to thank the United Nations Economic for Africa (UNECA) and Statistics South Africa for availing Tablets to Namibia to undertake a digital census in line with the UN recommendations. We also would like to thank the Ministry Of Labour, Industrial Relations, and Employment Creation for availing the electronic recruitment system to facilitate all census recruitment,” Shimuafeni said.
The Statistician General concluded that they have managed to pay the enumerators and vehicle owners who did not have outstanding documents or had technical issues, such as absence from work.
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