By Chris Ochayi

ABUJA – The nation’s preparation towards the conduct of the next national population census by 2016 received a major boost, yesterday, as the World Bank approved about N800 million for the training of staff of National Population Commission, NPC, to ensure the success of the exercise.

Director-General of NPC, Mr. Jamin Zubema, who disclosed this in Abuja during the capacity-building workshop on project management, said the grant covered three years under the Statistics for Results Facility-Catalytic Fund, SFR-CF No. TF099783.

Zubema, who said activities outlined in the approved support document had been prioritised, added that worthy of note was the distribution of some of the activities to coincide with focal states of Anambra, Bauchi, Edo, Kaduna, Niger and Ondo, where the bank had other projects.

He said: “This is aimed at facilitating the bank’s overall impact of its programme interventions in the said states and make monitoring and evaluation of activities easier.

“The grant will terminate on February 28, 2014, in accordance with the Grant Agreement signed on June 16, 2011, between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the World Bank.

“As you already know, the Commission has started accessing the grant with the training of 148 cartographers for 21 days that commenced in October, 2011.

“Twenty census personnel have undergone a refresher workshop in Demographic Techniques and Data Analysis at Obafemi Awolowo University which will be followed immediately with the in-house training of another 100 staff in two selected venues.”