Ahead of the highly anticipated national census, geo-mapping of household and enumeration area boundaries stands at 90.3%, Chris Mukiza, the executive director of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos), said.
The mapping of households and geo-coding of area boundaries is aimed at creating an interactive map that shall be used in the enumeration exercise. The national census is scheduled to take place on May 10, 2024. Currently, Uganda is estimated to have over 41 million people.
The estimates can, however, only be verified after the national census
We have 50 districts that have been 100% mapped. 58 districts and or cities are above 90% data-cleaned. The majority of them think they go to 100%, but on validation, they are at 94%, for instance. It has 1,093 villages on validation; 1028 have been mapped, leaving 95 behind. Those above 80% with validated data are 18 districts, and there are those below 70%,” he said.
Mukiza said some districts, which claim to have covered 100% of household and enumeration area boundaries, skipped some villages, or some villages were wrongly mapped, while others took geocodes on the roads. The exercise stands at 90.3%
Leaving villages or households up-mapped means leaving them out of the census exercise because the enumerators will skip them since they will be using an interactive digital map.
Meanwhile, the geo-mapping of household and enumeration area boundaries in the Kampala metropolitan areas of Kampala, Wakiso, and Mukono kicked off yesterday. According to Mukiza, the area has a high percentage, and once it is done, the exercise will be at 97%.
We still have a lot of work. We are calling upon the local authorities, districts, cities, town councils, sub-counties, parishes, and villages to ensure that their villages are well combed. They think they finished, but the coordinates are in the wrong place. They have to repeat it. We want to finish the exercise by the end of March and start field operations,” he said.
Ubos confirmed that it has identified both international and domestic suppliers of tablets. Unrevealed local firm-based production will produce 20,000 tablets; the remaining 100,000 will be procured abroad. The first batch of tablets will be delivered in mid-March, and the last consignment will be received in mid-April. The tablets will be loaded with questionnaires, an enumeration map, and sundry. The tablets will cost Shs 132 billion.
There will also be a census center for the processing of the collected data, umbrellas, reflector jackets, bags, and other items that would be used in the exercise.
“We need to have a big place where we will be receiving data electronically. So, we need to procure servers to increase the highway system. The available system cannot handle the task at hand,” he said.
“We want a date for planning purposes. The government needs to know how many of us are and where we are, how we are living, where you access services, what we have, age, sex, and others. The Ubos data is not for taxation.” he said.