The Speaker of the National Assembly, Job Ndugai and the Minister for Home Affairs, George Simbachanwene have called on Tanzanians to start deliberating on the coming population and housing census scheduled for next year. The duo, who are also Members of Parliament for Kongwa and Kibakwe constituencies respectively, hinted that census would enable the government to plan for development and economic growth.
Contributing yesterday at the 2022 population and housing census awareness and dissemination session for government officials, social groups and religious leaders, organised by Dodoma Region, the leaders said the exercise is important, hence, called upon Tanzanians to take part in it. Speaker Ndugai said that the exercise was crucial since it will help the Government to plan for basic needs and provide social services. He further, called on authorities to create awareness among the citizens especial in the rural areas.
"The exercise is not such easy; we need to direct more efforts in educating our people, because most of them are reluctant to be counted," Ndugai insisted. On his part, Minister Simbachawene commended Dodoma Regional Commissioner Antony Mtaka for organizing the Conference, stressing that the census is important as it provides scientific and developmental evidence. "Census is development, you could not set up any strategic plan to push for development in any sector without knowing the number of people, age or sex of that particular population," he expressed.
On her part, the Director General of the Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics cum a Chief Government Statistician, Dr. Albina Chuwa said the Government is fully committed to overseeing the Population and Housing Census exercise, which is expected to take place next year while calling upon Tanzanians to show up in large numbers during the exercise. "This census will be the sixth to be administered by the sixth-phase government with great professionalism. We expect to count more than 64 million people, as each year the number of people increases by 3,1 million according to the last census conducted in 2012 record of 49 million people," she said.