The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) has expressed its readiness ahead of the national housing census.
The technologically driven National Population and Housing Census (NPHC) 2024 will be carried out from May 10–19, 2024. The first day of enumeration, which is set for May 10, 2024, was approved a Census Public Holiday by the Cabinet and declared by the President to ensure easy recall of the Census Night during the period of enumeration.
The National Population and Housing Census was last conducted in 2014. At that time, Uganda had a population of 34 million people. The census is carried out every 10 years, and this year’s exercise was expected to take place on August 24 and 25, but it was postponed due to the delayed procurement of tablets.
Speaking during the training of trainers of the enumerators, Mukiza said after the census, 30000 tablets will be given to the National Identification Registration Authority (NIRA) for mass registration of people and verification of voters by the Electoral Commission.
According to Albert Byamugisha, Chairman of the Board of Directors (UBOS), he urged Ugandans to stay at home on Friday, as it has been gazetted as a public holiday by the government.
“The public is encouraged to stay home for a smooth census exercise. During the exercise, there are a few questions that will be posed to the respondents. The questions include, how many are you in the household,” he said.
He noted that the UBOS secured over 12,000 tablets required for the conduct of the census exercise, trained officers, assistant district census officers, district information and technology officers, and district technical officers.
Of the 12,000 tablets, 38,000 are enhanced with special features for verification and fingerprints that will be required for mass registration of people by the National Identification Registration Authority (NIRA) and verification of voters by the Electoral Commission, while others will be retained by local governments for picking data for community information systems. This will later be picked up by UBOS for the generation of statistics for better planning for the country.
He said that Pads have been dispatched to various districts ahead of the national census. The first batch of iPads were flagged for six districts, including Gulu district, Gulu city, Apac, Albatong, Amolata, and Otuke.
