World Bank hands over vehicles to GBoS

Seventeen (17) out of twenty-four (24) vehicles were handed over by representatives from the World Bank and UNFPA to the Ministry of Finance for GBoS. The remaining seven (7) are expected to arrive before the end of January.

Speaking at the press conference, Nyakasie M.B. Sanyang, Statistician General for GBoS  in his remarks at the handing over said the vehicles would support the coordination of their work during this year’s census activities.

Mr Sanyang pointed out that the census was supposed to be conducted in November 2023 but rescheduled to April 2024.

 According to him, the Covid-19 pandemic and the restriction on the movement of people and goods affected the movement of technical experts to conduct assessments and timely implementations of regional workshops that were expected to boost the capacity of census personnel.

He stated that the critical aspect of the digital census which is the mapping of the country and demarcation of the country into numeration units has been completed, adding that the maps are being formatted for integration into the Capri System.

He advanced said that the Capri System has been developed and tested and will be further tested at a larger scale during the pilot census.

Ndeye Rose Sarr, UNFPA country representative said her office has been providing both technical and financial support to GBoS in the conduct of the Population & Housing Census Survey, among others.

“The strong and collaborative working relationship between GBoS and UNFPA has not only yielded fruitful results but has led to the establishment of the South-South cooperation between GBOS and Agencé Nationale de la Statistics démographique du Sénégal et NFP, to fulfil the requirements of the upcoming Population & Housing Census, which will be done for the first time digitally,” Madam Sarr said.

Feyi Boroffice, country representative of the World Bank said that the vehicles are not only geared towards the smooth conduct of the Population & Housing census but for future statistical activities as well.

“The funding of this project is part of a regional statistical project called the Hiswaka project,” Mrs Boroffice added.