Census field mapping exercise 85% complete 

Gweru (New Ziana)-The field mapping exercise for the 2022 national population census is nearly complete, an official has said.

The government has set 21 April to 30 April for the 2022 census and this year is looking at going digital so as to avoid over and under counting.

Government has released US$30 million of the US$98 million which was allocated for the 2022 national census programme, which will be the fifth population census since independence in 1980. The first one was held in 1982.

Speaking at a Provincial Publicity meeting programme held in Gweru, ZIMSTAT Director General Taguma Mahonde said they are currently in the pre-enumeration phase of the census programme in which they are conducting two major activities.

“We are in the pre-enumeration phase and there are two major activities, the field mapping exercise as well as the pilot exercise. The field mapping exercise is now 85 percent complete nationally,” he said.

The field mapping exercise is looking at the systematic way of preparing for enumeration and Zimbabwe has been divided into small geographical units called enumeration areas.

“When we deploy our enumerators we arm them with a map and a tablet, but the map is the one which will give the boundaries within which the enumerator has to carry his or her work,” said Mahonde.

“85 percent of Zimbabwe now have the EA set. This is the standard way of doing it so that we don’t have over or under counting and each EA has an average of 100 households,” he added.

The field mapping being carried out is the primary source of the census and it is being accompanied by a pilot project which will focus on the readiness in terms of carrying out the actual census.

“At the pilot project we are looking at the logistics, the instruments, our questionnaire our ability to sink data to our servers. This round of census is going to use the computer assisted interviews as we have thrown away the issue of paper questionnaires,” said Mahonde.

The Director General also confirmed that enumerators underwent training and are the ones who are going to be administering the pilot census throughout the country.

“We had about 150 enumerators who were being trained at Mkoba Teachers College and I am glad that the training went very well, we are currently deploying them and from the 18th to the 27th of November they will be doing enumeration for the pilot census,” he said.

Government has also set up a national census committee which is chaired by Finance minister Mthuli Ncube.
The Times- New Ziana