THE Minister responsible for the 2024 National Census, Hon. Richard Masere, has confirmed that enumeration is still ongoing in some areas and communities, with efforts being made to finalize the data collection.
In a media briefing yesterday, Minister Masere stated that the census is proceeding despite delays, with the team working towards the deadline of August 24th, by which all data collection is expected to be concluded and detailed information uploaded to the website.
“Affected areas such as the Momase region, have experienced continuous rainfall and this has affected the movement into rural communities,” Masere explained.
“This point of time, we have delivered all the unit teams to all the regions and the provinces and the Census is progressing slowly.”
Although the census is progressing slowly, Minister Masere notes the importance of continuing the census.
He confirmed that counting has been completed in Manus Province, East New Britain, and West New Britain. In the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB), enumeration is complete, and data is currently being uploaded to the website.
“By the end of this week census in AROB will be completed, and in NCD 95 percent of it is completed but as you are aware most of the data are still being held back by the data collectors, they wanted to be paid their allowance before they release the data,” Masere said.
The management of NID has been given the tasked with working closely with the Department of Finance to ensure that enumerators’ allowances are cleared and sorted out.
“From what I understand, three LLGs were sorted last week, and I’m told that this week, all remaining LLGs will be addressed,” Masere said.
“This week we are anticipating that NCD will start uploading the data and we hope to see NCD completed next week before the 10th of August.”
In Central Province, enumeration is complete, and the team is now synchronizing and uploading data. Enumeration is still in progress in the Highlands region.
Masere noted the obstacles encountered, particularly in coastal areas such as Western Province and Vanimo. He explained that the timelines have been reviewed and extended, with the agreement that all enumerations will conclude by August 24th, after which the official population count of the country will be announced to the public.
“This is not that the census failed, this is because it is important to understand that in Papua New Guinea, it is quite challenging to conduct such a large-scale event,” he added.
“We are monitoring all the provinces from our centre, our NSO team is assisting with issues of finance to ensure all the outstanding payments are fully done.
“We are in close talk with all the regional and provincial coordinators to address issues on the ground in a timely manner.”
