Nqobile Tshili, Chonicle Reporter
The 2022 National Population and Housing Census RESULTS are expected to be released by the end of October this year, a change from the past when the results were released after two years.

The results of the 2012 census were not released until 2014, but the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) said it expected to release the preliminary results within three months of the exercise’s conclusion. of this year.

Zimbabwe will conduct a national population and housing census between April 21 and 30.

While previous censuses were carried out manually, with enumerators using a lot of paperwork, this year’s exercise will be done electronically through the use of tablets and the CAPI computer-assisted personal interviewing technical system.

Zimstat has already purchased equipment, including tablets that will be used by enumerators and supervisors when conducting the national census.

The statistics agency is training provincial level one supervisors on how to use the CAPI system, after which they will be required to pass the knowledge on to lower levels.

At least 50,000 enumerators are being recruited for the census exercise as well as computer technicians.

In an interview after the official opening of the training workshop for provincial supervisors in Bulawayo on Saturday, Zimstat Managing Director Mr. Taguma Mahonde said the results of this year’s census are expected to be released by the end of October of this year. Provincial supervisors in training come from Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, Midlands, Mashonaland West and Bulawayo

“In the past, we used to record the data on paper and then collect all the documents from all over the country and submit them to harare. This is the reason why the data entry process took up to a year and a half and the preliminary results came out after about 24 months,” Mahonde said.

He said that this time, using computer-assisted personal interviewing, the data is collected on tablets and at the end of the day the data is synchronized with the servers.

“If everything is done correctly, we expect preliminary results within three months and the final document should be out within six months,” Mahonde said.

Mr Mahonde said Zimstat was confident the Covid-19 pandemic would not further disrupt the census exercise, which is expected to cost $100 million.

In the 2022 national budget, the Treasury allocated $3 billion for the census exercise.

Mr Mahonde said the pandemic has seen the country incur additional expenses to cover the costs induced by Covid-19.

“Initially, we had a budget of $87 million, but then we had to buy masks, disinfectants and other consumables related to Covid-19, hence the budget which increased to $97 million” , did he declare.

Mr Mahonde called for maximum cooperation from members of the public during the national census exercise.
In some cases, the audience will have to answer questions that might seem sensitive and the interview process can even take up to 30 minutes per household.

“To members of the public, we say that we have a national project. This is a government project from April 21 to 30. We need your cooperation to make this exercise successful. You will be asked to disclose confidential information that is important to this exercise, but there will be no names to protect individuals. Nobody will be able to say that this data comes from this household,” Mr. Mahonde said.

He said the law even criminalizes the sharing of data obtained during the census period. – @nqotshili