Reiterating on the importance of population data collection in the country, the EASTERN Highlands Province Governor, Simon Sia, affirmed that his province aims to kick off important data collection by next year.
The Governor said discussions on data collection programs such as ward recording, Census and NID, have been ongoing with a budget in place.
“I am confident we will have all of this completed by 2024” the governor said.
Stating his support for what the data collection programs sought out to accomplish, the Governor stressed on the importance of having the accurate figure for a province as Eastern Highlands, expressing that at the moment, he can only give an estimate whenever asked about the population of Eastern Highlands Province, something he shared is an all-round challenge for the provincial governments.
He added that having such accurate data in hand eases development planning for resource allocation and service delivery.
Governor Sia proudly noted that as to date, the Unggai Bena District in the Eastern Highlands Province is one of the first district to complete rollout of NID, with the Goroka District following behind.
He made this statement yesterday following a Ward Record Book MoU signing between the Eastern Highlands Provincial Government and department of Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs
