Govt to launch e-population data system
The Director General of the National Bureau of Statistics, Dr Alibina Chuwa speak at a past event.
What you need to know:
- The Director General of the National Bureau of Statistics, Dr Alibina Chuwa, revealed last week that the Bureau would use various platforms to educate the public. “We will train the public on how to install our electronic population register application on their phones for them to store and update data especially on newly born babies,” she said.
Dar es Salaam. The government is putting finishing touches to an electronic population register through which full particulars of citizens would be gathered for development planning purposes.
The Director General of the National Bureau of Statistics, Dr Alibina Chuwa, revealed last week that the Bureau would use various platforms to educate the public. “We will train the public on how to install our electronic population register application on their phones for them to store and update data especially on newly born babies,” she said.
The rector of the Eastern Africa Statistical Training College, Prof Innocent Ngalinda, told The Citizen the project was currently in its pilot stage being implemented in Bagamoyo. The system was designed by Eastc data scientists and experts from NBS and the local government.
Once operational, it would reduce multiple registrations of documents such as passports, birth certificates, national IDs and hospital cards as everyone would have a unique identification number for accessing their data in the system.
The permanent secretary in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Government), Mr Mussa Iyombe, said the system would also help the National Electoral Commission (NEC) update its voter register without people visiting it physically.
He added: “After the pilot project in the two wards of Mapinga and Fukuyose, the project will be extended to the rest of Bagamoyo District and, later the whole country.” Mr Iyombe added that about Sh1.6 billion would be used in this financial year for the project.
Prof Ngalinda told The Citizen that another benefit of the e-population register would be in managing school enrolment. “Currently, it is difficult to know the exact number of children, of school age to be registered for school in a particular area,” he said.
