AfDB pledges tablets for Zambia’s population census

LUSAKA, Nov. 22 — The African Development Bank (AfDB) on Thursday pledged to provide electronic tablets for use during Zambia’s first-ever digital-based Census of Population and Housing in 2020.
Mary Manneko-Monyau, the bank’s country manager, said the bank was exploring the possibility of leasing tablets from different countries to be used in Zambia’s census.
She said in a statement released by the Ministry of National Development Planning following a round table donor meeting on the census, that possibility of leasing tablets from different countries will depend on Zambia’s census calendar.
The bank, she said, normally provides technical assistance in census particularly in the preparatory activities in African countries and that Zambia was a beneficiary when it conducted its 2010 census.
She further commended the government for its commitment to conduct the census.
The government announced recently its intention to conduct the population and housing census electronically in 2020.
The government has already started engagements with the cooperating partners and the private sector as part of efforts to mobilize resources for the census, according to the statement.
Last week, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) pledged to provide 500,000 U.S. dollars in terms of technical assistance, equipment and financial resources towards the census while the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) pledged to provide 100,000 U.S. dollars towards the conducting of the census.

Xinhua