The Speaker of Parliament, Anita Annet Among, has asked the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) to speed up the enumeration exercise if they are to cover the entire country on time.
Among made these remarks on May 12, 2024, as Uganda Bureau of Statistics officials enumerated her at her residence in Nakasero, Kampala.
According to Among, Ugandans should embrace the census activity and urge UBOS officials to speed up the process in order to have a wider coverage.
“I want to urge the UBOS boss to make sure that the exercise is done and completed. I’ve been waiting since the night of the 10th. Until today, I’ve been sitting at home, waiting. How many people are sitting and waiting?” The UBOS team should move faster for people to be registered because I think the speed is not good enough,“ Among stated.
The Speaker noted that the census exercise is crucial, especially as the August House conducts the budgeting process. She added that the government is looking at the status and number of houses that the country has, the population, and the demographic aspect so as to plan for its people.
However, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics Executive Director, Dr. Chris Mukiza, stated that over 5 million Ugandans have so far been counted in the ongoing National Housing and Population Census (NHPC).
According to Mukiza, the mass witnessed on the first day of the exercise was a result of recruiting enumerators fraudulently.
He further stated that, amidst the challenges they had on the first day, especially in the Greater Kampala metropolitan area, they have rectified it, and it was because the enumerators had not been assigned their roles and responsibilities by their supervisor, who Mukiza said did not follow the instructions from UBOS and went on recruiting people outside the recruitment system.
According to statistics from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, for the past three days, the number of households covered is about 30% of the estimated 8.7 million households.
The ongoing national population census 2024 commenced on May 10, 2024, and is held every 10 years, with the last exercise being conducted in August 2014.
