Uganda Census 2024, UBOS Ready To Handle Poor Internet Challenges In Remote Areas-Dr.Chris Mukiza

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Mar 27, 2024 - 15:49

Uganda Census 2024, UBOS Ready To Handle Poor Internet Challenges In Remote Areas-Dr.Chris Mukiza

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has revealed that the forthcoming Uganda Census 2024 is going to be unique and instrumental in many aspects of being a Digital census.

Dr.Chris Mukiza the executive Director of UBOS said that no papers will be involved in this exercise noting that this will save the environment from trees being cut to make paper and will also deliver timely results.

However, UBOS is anticipating technical disruptions in the upcoming National Population and Housing Census.

Key among these is the likelihood of delays in data transmission due to poor or no internet connections in some parts of the country.

“Given that it is our first digital census, we expect challenges related to internet access,” admitted Chris Mukiza, the UBOS Executive Director.

According to World Bank data, only 47% of Ugandans have internet access, with significant disparities between urban and rural areas.

For those regions lacking reliable internet, UBOS has devised a workaround: Enumerators – the officials tasked with collecting census data – instead of real-time data transmission, will have to store it until reaching areas with a better connection.

“In places where there is no internet, our enumerators will have to wait and send data in the evening. They will be able to capture the data but they will not be able to send it until when they get to areas with better connection,” Mukiza explained.

Another hurdle, he said, arises in regions like Karamoja, which rely on Kenyan telecommunication provider Safaricom for internet access.

To address this, UBOS has equipped supervisors with the ability to receive data from enumerators via Bluetooth. The supervisors can then travel to areas with stronger Ugandan network signals for data transmission.

As a backup plan, enumerators will be equipped with smartphones loaded with the census questionnaire. This redundancy ensures data collection continues uninterrupted even if tablets malfunction.

Census night begins at nightfall on May 9th, 2024 though the morning of May 10th, is when the actual census kicks off. UBOS ED revealed.