National census will proceed in 2020 despite issues: Maru

NATIONAL Planning and Monitoring Minister Richard Maru has assured the nation there will be a national census conducted in 2020, despite current problems faced by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
Maru was responding to a question during the Budget press lock-up yesterday if the census would go ahead as planned.
The national census planned for 2010 was not held, resulting in no one knowing the exact population of the country.
The NSO is inundated with problems with former Chief Statistician Roko Koloma having gone into hiding after police wanted to question him on an alleged misuse of K24 million.
Maru said yesterday the Government had learnt from the problems of 2010.
“Despite the problems at NSO, we have provided funding now so they can start their work (for 2020 census) early,” he said.
“We are hoping in the next two or three months to bring in some international experts, who will oversee the next census.
“Instead of complaining, we want to make it happen.
“We are determined not to fail.
“Work has started and I’m very confident we will get to the next census in 2020, and get the results out before the next election.
“I can tell you that because of issues we’ve had with the last one, especially in terms of delay, we are working very hard with our development partners.”