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FG Launch Online E-Recruitment For 2023 Population and Housing Census

Published

2 years ago

October 31, 2022

By Joel Ajayi
Federal Government on Monday launched online E-recruitment Portal for successful conduct of the next Population and Housing Census in April 2023.

Speaking at the Launching of the Portal in Abuja, the Chairman National Population Commission Hon. Isa Kwarra said the need to have best hands for the exercise is very important.

According to him, to carry out the gigantic task of conducting accurate and reliable census, there is the need for the recruitment of manpower that will carry out this exercise.

“The need to be fair and transparent in the recruitment process has led the Commission to introduce the online e-recruitment portal and train the officers that will superintend over this important census recruitment process.

“I am happy to inform Nigerians that the Commission will through the online recruitment process request for applicants from the following categories of field staff that will be needed to prosecute the next Census: FacilitatorsTraining Centre Administrators, Monitoring & Evaluations OfficersData Quality Managers,Data Quality Assistants, Supervisors and Enumerators.

“The number of functionaries to be recruited in each category will depend on the number of available vacancies in each State, which will be derived largely from the total number of Enumeration Areas (EA) in the States.
“To ensure a fair, efficient and transparent recruitment selection process, the Honourable Federal Commissioners (HFC) will, in addition to the existing team at the State level, constitute a Local Government Area Recruitment Team (LRRT) which will comprise of 3 persons; The Comptrollers (Chairperson), One NPC staff who has NPC file number (as Desk officer/Secretariat), Local Government Officials.”
He added that: “The State Recruitment Review Team (SRRT), who are already profiled, are to train the Local Government Area Recruitment Team (LRRT) in conjunction with officer that will be sent from the headquarters. The Local Government Recruitment Team will work to ensure that prospective applicants in hard-to-reach areas, difficult terrains and areas with no network coverage have the opportunity to apply to serve as census functionaries and are appropriately accommodated on the recruitment portal.

“The Headquarters Recruitment Team (HRT) in conjunction with State Recruitment Review Team (SRRT) will train the Local Government Area Recruitment Team and monitor the recruitment exercise in the LGAs. The Commission assures Nigerians that the advertisement requesting for application will be placed in national print and electronic media, as well as the Commission’s dedicated website and social media platforms.

“This will remove the huge logistics of moving personnel across the country. Consequently, every community will have the opportunity of contributing to the census workforce thereby ensuring that the people are adequately counted.
I want to use this occasion to promise Nigerians that the Commission is on course and will continue to be fair and transparent as we approach the 2023 Population and Housing Census.

“To us in the Commission, the quality of staff that will perform the census activities are very important. Therefore, having good knowledge of the content of the census document, the technique and the organization of the census process is key to the success of the 2023 Population and Housing Census.

“The quality of the recruitment process will reflect on the quality of the data to be collected and ultimately the success of the 2023 census. While a good recruitment exercise will not by itself necessarily guarantee a successful census, a badly conducted recruitment process will inevitably lead to problems and increase the risk of an unsuccessful census.

“The launching of the online E-recruitment portal for the 2023 census at the headquarters marks the beginning of the online recruitment process whereby Nigerians from all demography and gender can hook on to the website that will be provided by the Commission to fill the online form and get themselves registered to be recruited.

“Let me use this opportunity to assure Nigerians that the bulk of personnel for the 2023 Census will be drawn from the communities where they are resident.”
He thanked President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR for his unprecedented support for the preparatory activities of the Commission towards the successful conduct of the 2023 Population and Housing Census.

Earlier, the Director, Employment and Wages at the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Gloria Ndifon, said e-recruitment is the new development and digital is what rules the world, and while commending the Commission for giving youths job digitally she said it will enable them gain experience and have better bargaining power for future engagements.

Also, the representative of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Chief Mrs. Ann Aderibigbe, lauded the e-recruitment portal saying this serves as a challenge to other agencies to embrace digitization to enable accuracy, saying the NPC is on the right track.

Giving an overview of the e-recruitment portal, the Census Manager, Inuwa B. K Jalingo, said the e-recruitment aims to recruit staff who will work in all areas in the six geo-political zones, and from all communities to enable adequate coverage of every cutizen, disclosing that the exercise will require over 25 million Nigerians to apply as adhoc staff.

Meanwhile, the Director Public Affairs Department at the NPC, Dr. Isiaka Yahaya, explained that the exercise is not just recruitment but a key preparatory activity to the 2023 census, adding that it is a stakeholders’ engagements activity which will enable a National census with accurate data for national planning.

Highpoint of the event was the decoration of key stakeholders from the NOA, NIPOST, INEC, NIMC, NYSC Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, and NBS as Ambassadors of the 2023 census to join the league of Governors and President Muhammadu Buhari who had also been decorated as Ambassadors.

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Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

The Gleamer

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D

The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.

The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.

In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”

The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.

The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.

Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.

In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.

Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.

Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.

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