Africa-Press – Namibia. STATISTICIAN general of the statistics agency Alex Shimuafeni says they need about N$1,1 billion to execute the planned population census this year. Speaking on Desert Radio yesterday, Shimuafeni said while the total figure needed might seem high, the return on investment for the government is high as well.
“The total budget needed for the census to go ahead is about N$1,1 billion, and if broken down, it will come to about N$100 million per year. Yes, the census will go ahead around August. We have done the pilot census, which is generally the dry run of the actual census and this also went well and was well concluded,” he said.
According to Shimuafeni, the initial programme was postponed last year because of the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Namibian population and the economy.
“The census is a very important aspect of the government’s planning as well as allocation of resources. In the past, we have done what is called census mapping, where we go to all the infrastructure in the country and identify whether these are businesses or houses, and this we have done.
“We were also looking at other infrastructure, including water points. This has been completed and we are now ready to go ahead with the actual census,” Shimuafeni said.
Shimuafeni reiterated that the statistics agency is currently engaged with pre-operations to ensure that the census is successfully executed. “Compared to the last census, we have since moved from the paper-based census to the digital one ,” he said.
Shimuafeni said the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) has taken a keen interest in sensitising Namibians about the forthcoming census and making sure they understand why they should participate in the process.
He also reiterated that the census also determines the allocation of resources to key targets for the country. “When we talk of [the] census, we must understand that it is very vital to the allocation of the resources that we use. It also affects how other service providers plan and execute their plans,” he said.
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