Census will Help Government For Easy Planning- M7

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has said that the 2024 coming census will help the Government for easy planning and distribution of government resources. President Museveni made the remarks while launching the population and National Housing Census at Kololo independence ground in Kampala. "You can not plan for the people you don't know," says the President urging all Ugandans to stand and be counted next year. He adds that the Population Census only aims at five things that include how many people, where are they, how are they living, what they own and where they get services from. He adds that the government distributes the PDM money according to the population of the areas. "I'm happy to see that the population of Uganda increases every after 10 years which means the health services are improving. It shows people no longer die of diseases," says the President. He added that Africa used to be under populated due to diseases. He also thanked UBOS for doing a good job of giving the Country good data and statistics. He however challenged UBOS on the 9th to 10th population. "Explain to my people very well. The real day of population Census will be 9th not 9th to 10th," says the President. The State Minister for Finance and economic Planning Hon Amos Lugoloobi says it is only in Census, that one can obtain a detailed understanding of the entire population and its characteristics at the same time. "Census is the main source of demographic and social economic statistics in any Country," he says. He adds that Census collects information and produces indicators such as household based data on population, housing, Agriculture, micro and small enterprises. "Census data is useful in determining how to appropriately allocate scarce resources," he says adding that statistics are important for planning and budgeting. " Data from 2024 Census will help government streamline and perfect implementation of PDM to ensure every Ugandan moves into money economy," Says Minister.
The Executive Director UBOS Dr Chris Mukiza  who was baptised Census Commissioner says the government has funded 98% compared to 75% of the previous Census. He added that  the census Data will be helped to evaluate the performance of National Development plan(NDP). He says the Population is projected to be 46.2 million people. " So far 86.5% of the pre-census activities are down," Says Dr Mukiza. He says UBOS data will be used by NIRA, EC, Bank of Uganda among others. "Census will help government in allocation of services close to the people because government will know where they are," he says adding counted people live longer. "When you are counted, you live longer because government knows you and plan for you," he says. He called upon the public to positively comply with UBOS team during census period. He added that after census tablets that will be used,shall be given to Parishes to collect data for PDM, others will be given to EC to identify voters at polling stations and other government sectors.