Home News US$98 Million Channelled Towards 2022 Census

US$98 Million Channelled Towards 2022 Census

by Bustop TV News

By Sukuoluhle Ndlovu

Masvingo – US$98 million will be channelled by the government of Zimbabwe towards the 2022 population and housing counting, ZIMSTAT has said.

This came out at a meeting organised by Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency at Chevron Hotel in Masvingo. The meeting was held in a bid to create provincial and district publicity committees that shall intensify census publicity activities.

The census will be held from the 21st to 28th of April 2022.

The initial budget for the census was pegged at US$85miliion but due to Covid -19 the budget had to be reviewed and an additional of US$13million was made. The additional funds will be channelled towards the prevention strategy against Covid -19.

The Director General for ZIMSTAT, Taguma Mahonde noted the developments.

“When we made our budget for the 2022 census, we were not aware Covid -19 would stretch till date, so from the initial budget we had made we had to add a total of US$13milion towards the prevention of Covid -19. So, the total figure for the counting is now US$98million. This is the budget for the 2022 census,” he said.

A pilot census will be carried out.

“We need this census to be effective and accurate so that we get compatible data as the one we are carrying out next year is different as will not focus on houses alone but also infrastructure. This is critical for planning, monitoring and evaluation for social service delivery as well. The figures will have will also help us labour force and will be able to plan accordingly.

The digital system we are introducing will be systematic and will be able to reduce over and under counting, we need to perfect our system. So, we are going to have a pilot census to test our machines and systems to see if we are ready to go. Samples will be carried out in every province we need to see its effectiveness before we kick start counting next year,” he said.

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