By Fatou Dahaba
Nyakasi Sanyang, the Statistician-General of The Gambia Bureau of Statistics, reports that as of Wednesday, June 12, 2024, the household listing operations nationwide are nearing completion with field data synchronization revealing 84% of households have been enumerated, representing 80% of the total population. This amounts to 2,261,724 individuals, with the national average household size currently standing at 8.3.
He said that 320 216 structures have been listed out of the 366 677 structures mapped during the 2023 mapping exercise, corresponding to 87.3 percent of the total.
The GBOS Boss spoke to the media on Thursday during the weekly briefing regarding the status of the census listing and enumeration.
According to the Statistician General, significant progress has been made in enumerating households despite the late start of the listing exercise due to the logistics complexity.
He added that enumeration across all regions is above 80 percent; Kuntaur, Mansakonko, and Basse reported comparatively higher enumeration rates, with nearly 90 percent of households enumerated in that region.
“In Kuntaur and Janjanbureh, 84 percent of the population have been enumerated, whereas, in Banjul, Kanifing, and Brikama, about 83 percent of the population have been enumerated. Enumerators who complete their listing and enumeration have been redeployed to other enumeration areas to ensure timely completion of the work’, Statistician General told reporters.
Nyakasi Sanyang also announced that all field workers who signed the contract and whose names were submitted to the project implementation unit have been paid 30 percent through mobile money agents.
“We still facing resistance in some cohorts and non-Gambian communities. We are using all possible diplomatic channels to get them to comply, but if this fails, we will unavoidably use the powers vested in us. Again, I am taking this opportunity to call on everyone in this country to comply as all must comply and provide accurate information.”
