THE fifth population census in Zimbabwe after its independence in 1980, will be conducted in April next year, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has announced.
The process which precedes the delineation exercise of constituencies ahead of harmonised elections in 2023 will commence on 21 and end on 30 April.
Ncube said this at his first meeting with the National Census Committee (NCC) which he will head national survey would be the first to conducted using digital platforms and computer tablets.
“Zimbabwe will conduct its fifth population and housing census from 21 to 30 April 2022,” said Ncube.
“The 2022 population and housing census will be the first digital census in the history of Zimbabwe and will be making use of computer tablets during census the enumeration process.”
Ncube said that the NCC had agreed on following a three-stage road map which consists of pre-enumeration as the first stage, enumeration, and post-enumeration as the second and final stages respectively.
According to Ncube, the first two stages are a census field mapping exercise which is the subdivision of the whole country into enumeration areas of 80 to 120 households and is to be completed by 21 January 2022.
“The enumeration phase is the most critical stage in the census programme since the quality of the national data will largely depend on it, the actual field enumeration phase for the census is scheduled for 21 to 30 April 2022.”
Results of the census are expected on 1 August 2022 ahead of the 2023 national elections.