GOVT SAVES E18 MILLION IN POPULATION CENSUS BUDGET

MBABANE – Belt tightening and efficient budget utilisation best describes how E18.3 million was saved by government when undertaking the Swaziland Population and Housing Census.

The total amount of money that had been released for rollout of the census was E51 752 000. However, the actual amount of money that was eventually spent during the exercise was E33 356 000. This effectively means the actual amount of money that was saved upon completion of the project was E18 396 000. This was disclosed in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development second quarter performance report for the year 2017/2018. It should be mentioned that it was believed that most of the budget went to the training of some of the staff that was hired for the project. According to the preliminary report of the project, for the census field work the country was divided into about 2324 enumeration areas, each consisting of approximately 100 households where each was covered by one enumerator.

The report states that about 3 000 enumerators and supervisors combined together were recruited. In addition to the enumerators and supervisors, 46 IT assistants were also recruited. “Comprehensive training to all the census functionaries particularly enumerators and supervisors is a must for the successful conduct of the census and good quality data,” the report states. It highlighted that three tier cascade training was devised and that at the top of the pyramid were 60 national trainers who went through two weeks of residential grooming. It is also believed that some funds were spent on the training material which included printed copies of questionnaires and instruction manuals that needed to be completed. In addition, the training also included field visits, canvassing of questionnaire on the tablets and transmission of data from field to the central server. A standard power point presentation was prepared and used in training at all levels where each trainee was provided with a tablet for practice during the training and subsequent collection of information during the field exercise.

Other funds, according to the preliminary report, went to the wide publicity campaign which was undertaken through television, radio, bill boards, posters and print media aimed at informing people about the importance of the project for the country. The preliminary report of the census was presented on the second week of the current month where it was revealed that the country now consisted of a population of 1 093 238 people. The findings made up of 531 111 males and 562 127 females being registered in the 10-year period between 2007 and 2017. The 74 789 persons registered consisted of 49 683 males while 25 106 were females and this represented a 0.7 per cent increase in the 10 years compared with a 0.9 per cent increase in the period of 1997-2007. It was noted in the report that the increase in the size of the country’s population was primarily due to three demographic factors, namely fertility, mortality and migration rate

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