By NELSON NATURINDA

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Uganda on Friday kicked off its 9th population census, coming behind Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya which did theirs in the last five years.

The region has seen growth in populations in the last decade, according to the census carried out in respective countries of East Africa.

Starting amidst challenges of faulty tablets, language barrier, rejection by the people, rain, lack of identification and complaints of undelivered allowances, the Ush333b ($88m) lasting for 10 days had registered little progress by Friday afternoon, despite the day being declared a public holiday.

The management of the census was quick to apologise, telling people there were technical glitches in the use of technology in the first digital-aided census in the country.

Read: Uganda announces new census dates

“We wish to apologise for the delay to reach you this morning. This has in certain places been caused by technical challenges in the Computer Aided Personal Interview (CAPI) machines we are using for the first time to collect the data. Some enumerators are also facing logging-in challenges because the technology is new,” says Alfred Geresom Musamali, the Publicity, and Advocacy Advisor for the National Population and Housing Census 2024, adding that the census body is working round the clock to overcome the challenges. 

Dr Chris Mukiza, the executive director of Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos), says 120,000 portable personal computers with touch screens were purchased at Ush132 billion ($34m).

Uganda carries its census every 10 years and had its first in 1911. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, while launching the National Population and Housing Census (NPHC) 2024, at Kololo Independence Grounds, recently, observed that the exercise is very crucial.

The exercise, which will take stock of Uganda’s estimated 45.5 million people will aim at getting questions such as How many people; Where are they?; How are they?; What do they own?; And where are the services? because according to the President, it is the census that gives the answers to all the above questions, and then the government finds ways to plan for the people.

The census will also help to evaluate the performance of the National Development Plan III (NDPIII), which ends in July before the launch of another development plan.

Read: Unicef: Uganda population expected to double in 2040

 This year’s census will be the sixth such exercise to be conducted since Uganda gained independence in 1962 and will be a comprehensive snapshot of a country’s population, providing data on the size, location, and characteristics of a population; their housing conditions, health service availability, and their general welfare.

“The information on dwelling units will be used to measure welfare as well as the variables of dwellings combined with other variables on materials used for construction of the dwellings, which provide relevant information for deriving indicators for the standards of living,” says The Uganda Bureau of statistics, the body charged with profiling Uganda’s figures and development indicators.

The National Planning Authority (NPA) is expected to use the data collected to create a model for development plans identify national strategic priorities, match development programs, and get the best way to distribute resources across the country to promote long-term poverty alleviation, socioeconomic change, and development programs.

The government also plans to use the data to track the implementation of the Parish Development Model (PDM), which has been praised as the magic bullet in turning over 60 percent of Ugandans from a subsistence way of life to a money economy.

The 2014 census data showed that 80 percent of Ugandans were in a subsistence economy, which informed the government’s decision to push for increased agricultural commercialization by promoting mechanised farming and irrigation in various arid and semi-arid regions of the country.

The focus will be on information on a wide range of personal and household characteristics, such as demographic and social characteristics, residence and migration characteristics, parental survival, disability status, education, literacy, and field of specialisation, which is the main focus of this census.

Other data required include labor market indicators, fertility rate, childhood mortality rate, and emigration.

 At the household level, the census will gather data on housing conditions, amenities and assets owned by the household, proximity to social service facilities, domestic agricultural activities, and household deaths.

Read: Uganda in new wave of re-nationalisation

Ubos will use the Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (Capi) system instead of printed questionnaires as it was in the last census.

Under this system, all data is directly entered into tablet PCs, which also log the coordinates of the Geographic Positioning System (GPS) to guarantee precise correction of any missing data.

According to Ubos, everyone who spent the census night, May 9, in Uganda will be eligible for enumeration, including Ugandans or foreigners as well as foreign diplomatic personnel accredited to Uganda.

Roadblocks were erected on major highways and border points to count people who used public means such as buses as well as truck drivers who crossed into the country, from various countries, at or before midnight.

The data collection process will take a minimum of 10 days, during which the enumerators will go from household to household interviewing the heads of households using the predesigned questionnaires. Census results will be released on December 24, 2024.