Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State says the collation of reliable data on population is a key requirement for effective planning and national development.
Ikpeazu stated this, Wednesday, in Umuobiakwa, Obingwa Local Government Area of the state, when he received a delegation of the National Population Commission led by the Federal Commissioner representing the state at the NPC, Chief Johny Nwabuisi.
Ikpeazu made it clear that periodic census was critical to national development as government at all levels needed to know the exact number of people they were serving and how best to apportion resources.
The importance of population census management, he said, led his administration to set up a Population Committee for the purpose of liaising with the Federal Government in ensuring that the next population census would be seamless in the state.
He assured the Federal Commissioner that his administration shall work closely with the Commission to ensure that the next census scheduled to hold by next year would be successful.
Earlier, in his speech, the Commissioner, Nwabuisi, said they were in Obingwa as part of their plans to organise a trial census which would be used to assess their level of preparedness for the main census.
According to him, It willl also be a good time for them to test their different equipment in readiness for the census in 2023. Obingwa LGA, according to him, is one of the LGAs chosen for the trial.
He thanked the governor for the foresight in the setting up of the state Population Committee under the Chairmanship of a former Deputy Governor of the State, Rt. Hon Eric Nwakanma, describing it as a key step toward a successful census exercise in the state, and assured that the Commission would work closely with the committee to capture the true population figure for the state.
In his speech, the Chairman of the committee, Nwakanma, thanked the governor for establishing the committee and assured that they would do all that was necessary to see that the true population figures for the state were captured in the next census.
