By Zubairu Idris

The National Population Commission (NPC) has assured households that all their personal information which they would give to enumerators during the forthcoming  population and housing census would be strictly confidential.

The Federal Commissioner representing Katsina State, Mr Bala Almu-Banye, made the disclosure at a meeting with media executives in the state, on Wednesday in Katsina.

Almu-Banye said that the purpose of the meeting was to update them on the status of the preparations for the 2023 Census and the next steps forward.

He said that the commission had recruited adequate ad hoc staff for effective coverage of all the nooks and crannies of the entire state during the exercise.

According to him, the ad hoc staff are to work in their local governments of residence in order to achieve the set targets.

The Federal Commissioner, therefore, urged residents to cooperate with the enumerators and provide answers to the questions raised.

“The information will be treated as confidential and only for the purpose of the exercise.

“We were all sworn not to reveal people’s secrets, likewise, all the enumerators and supervisors will take oath before they start the exercise,” he said.

He further said that the information given to the enumerators would be digitally transmitted directly to the commission’s server through the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), which is a machine like a mobile phone.

Almu-Banye further said that the NPC would work with traditional and community leaders to ensure that people who reside in hard-to-reach areas were counted.

He explained that such leaders would provide guides who would assist enumerators in reaching people in remote communities.

Edited by Mark Longyen/Vivian Ihechu