By Eben Enasco Kingsley, Benin City

The need to take proactive steps in dividing the Country’s land mass
into smaller units for the second phase of the Enumeration Area
Demarcation EAD,to ensure easy coverage by team of Enumerators ahead the 2017 National Population Census was yesterday emphasised by the Federal National Population Commissions’Commissioner, Dr.Tunde Lakoju in Benin City, Edo State.

npc-logoThe Honourable Federal Commissioner gave the charge while addressing stakeholders at the conference hall of the commission,on the commencement of the fieldwork for the second phase of the Enumeration Area Demarcation, EAD, for the 2017 Population and Housing Census in Egor LGA.

Dr Lakoju quipped that the EAD, constitute the foundation on which the entire census architecture stands, and also noted that it was
imperative to start early to abreast the stakeholders on the relevance of the whole exercise,adding that, the foundation forms the basis for the planning and execution of the census project.

His words: “the purpose of this briefing is to inform you that the
second phase of the Enumeration Area Demarcation exercise for the 2017 Census will take place from February 22,to March 21,2016 in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State.In order to effectively enumerates all these persons within a reasonable period, it is imperative to divide the whole land mass of the country into smaller units. This in essence constitute the EAD which is one of the core preparatory activities for the census exercise.

Adding,” the second phase of the EAD will take place in 29-LGAs in
29-State across the Federation which were not covered under the pilot test in December 2014 and the first phase in 2015, respectively.

“It is in recognition of this fact that the commission has adopted a
meticulous and gradual approach to the 2017  Census EAD that allows for practical experimentation of the methodology and necessary adjustment in implementation and flexibility,”he emphasized.

It will be recalled that the last Population Census was held in 2007.