The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) says it will be spending approximately N$263.2 million on over 2,800 private vehicles which will be hired to ferry enumerators during the national census slated to commence in September.
The census runs from 18 September until 3 November, where a payment of N$2,000 will be made on each vehicle used per day. A vehicle owner is likely to walk away with N$94,000 in total upon completion.
Government earlier this year made a budget provision of N$706 million geared towards the national census, though the Agency initially wanted N$1.1 billion. The census was supposed to be undertaken in 2022, but there were no funds in the state coffers.
“NSA will need just over 2,800 vehicles to use countrywide and more than 8,000 vehicles were registered during the process. The NSA went to each and every constituency to inspect the vehicles that were registered throughout the entire country. This process started on 06 July 2023 in Khomas until 21 July 2023,” said NSA Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni.
“Data entry of these inspected vehicles is under way and it is in its final stages. We are aiming to finalise this process by the end of tomorrow (Friday) 11 August 2023.”
This vehicle inspection process established that amongst the vehicles registered, there were vehicles registered such as single cabs, sedans and combies that did not qualify.
“The vehicles that will be eventually selected will be compensated a daily fee of averaging N$2,000 per day (depending on the Enumeration Area that the vehicles will be operating in). Since this daily rate is what NSA will be offering and what the vehicle owners will be accepting, thus no price bidding by vehicle owners, the method of selection to be used will be a Random Selection of equal chance per constituency,” he added.
Due to the oversubscription, the vehicles that are not selected will automatically become part of the reserved vehicles in case of any replacements needed.
The random selection process will be conducted via computer generated numbers and under the supervision of an external Auditor as well as an NSA Auditor, the Agency said.
The 2023 Population and Housing Census requires approximately 13,000 suitably staff ranging from Human Resources Officers, Enumerators (ENs), Team Supervisors (TSs), Information Technology Field, Technicians, Community Mobilizers and Constituency Supervisors (CSs). A total of 111,494 applied through NSA online recruitment system, including for office based positions.
Meanwhile, the training for the 2023 Population and Housing Census officially began on the 24th July and will conclude with the mass enumerators training on the 16th September 2023.
The aim of the training is to equip participants with the knowledge needed to conduct and successfully implement the enumeration phase. It also aims to train those who will be training enumerators in all constituencies throughout the country.
