As the National Population and Housing Census 2024 kicked off, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Museveni spared time to answer Census questions on their household before they were counted.
The Executive Director & National Census Commissioner of Uganda bureau of statistics, Dr. Chris Ndatira Mukiza was the overseer of this afternoon’s enumeration exercise which took place at State Lodge, Nakasero.
The enumeration of H.E the president Yoweri Museveni and First lady Janet Museveni kicked off at 12:30 pm and was executed by UBOS- Head of department for Demography and Social Statistics, Dr. Vincent Fred Ssenono.
Upon being enumerated, the president Yoweri Museveni congratulated Dr. Mukiza and his team for what he termed as a ‘comprehensive exercise’, stating that the questions being asked are very comprehensive and detailed.
‘’I congratulate Dr. Mukiza and his team, if this is what they are doing everywhere then it is good,’’ he said.
“I was happy with the questions because I could see that they are aiming at getting data that is useful for planning,” he added.
The president however, call on Ugandans to cooperate with the enumeration team so that they could be able to capture necessary information for future planning.
“I ask people to cooperate with them. I hear there is a group of people who say they do not want to be enumerated; they should stop that because they interfere with our work. This information is used for planning and to get solutions for your problems,” the president stated
The 1st technologically driven census (Digital Census) aims at generating a total population of Uganda as per census night.
Meanwhile, the National Census Commissioner, Dr. Mukiza noted that this census will generate baseline information on persons who benefited in different government programs such as Parish Development Model (PDM) funds, Emyooga, persons with disability funds, among others.
He added that the census for the first time will also generate day population in eleven major cities, such as Kampala, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Jinja and Mbale, among others.
The Head of department for Demography and Social Statistics at uganda bureau of statistics (UBOS), Dr. Vincent Fred Ssenono revealed that the exercise will help in identifying population which is still in the subsistence economy, youth unemployment as well as persons with disabilities by type.
The National census exercise which officially kicked off today will run util May,19, 2024.
