NISR to recruit 25,000 enumerators

The National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) is this March set to recruit more than 25,000 enumerators to take part in the national census exercise.In an interview with The New Times yesterday, the Census Coordinator at NISR, Prosper Mutijima, announced that the census will be carried out from August 16 to 30 this year.According to the official, those to be recruited are mainly teachers, adding that after their recruitment, they would be trained in June.He explained that the recruitment process would be done all over the country to carry out the exercise in their respective residential areas, which he said would help the census to be executed in a more convenient and effective manner.Mutijima added that enumerators will be trained in various techniques in filling in the questionnaires to be used during the census exercise. “Initially, the census was estimated to cost around US$ 21million, but I think the amount will increase to approximately US$ 25 million” Mutijima underscored.He noted that the bigger percentage of the funds would be provided by the central government while other stakeholders like the One UN family in Rwanda – through UNFPA – European Union and the World Bank, have already pledged to contribute to the exercise.The official said that they were currently in the process of preparing census tools and procuring materials besides organising meetings to prepare for the census at all administrative levels.He stated that the institution had completed issuing tenders to companies to supply them with various materials like bicycles, bags, pens, pencils, erasers, among others to be used during the census.Mutijima revealed that a pilot census had been carried out in August last year in 75 community settlements countrywide.“The pilot census helped us to clearly analysis how the citizens respond to the questionnaires we use and it also enabled the institution to master how we can execute the census in a more appropriate way,” Mutijima stated.He added that the exercise had assisted them in testing the accessibility of enumeration areas which, he said, would help them improve on the methodologies used, adding that the census would be carried out during the second term holidays.