The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) has commenced training the 2023 Housing and Population Census teams in the ||Kharas Region.

The Census is set to take place from September 18 to November 3.

184 teams and constituency supervisors were scheduled to attend the training; however, not all turned up.

"The challenge was that 25% of the trainees did not turn up. The following are the reasons: some of the trainees are now absorbed by other opportunities, like getting permanent jobs, and there are those who are currently attending NDF training. We are now trying to replace those who did not turn up, but for those who manage to turn up, we are busy with training. We started with the training yesterday, and it is going smoothly. Since this morning, we have managed to replace the 5% of those who did not turn up; they have already shown up for the training this morning," explained Jonas Nghipagwa, the Census Coordinator in the ||Kharas Region.

The trainees are expected to write an assessment test upon completion of the training.

"We are going to assess the training we are giving them right now, so actually the purpose of the training is just to assess if they are ready for the fieldwork. We are targeting that at least somebody who was attending the training and should be ready going into the field should get at least a 50% pass rate, and then from the pass rate we'll take from the top, whoever gets top marks until the last marks, and those who get lower marks will be placed on the reserve list."

Trainees who achieve top marks will train more than 500 shortlisted census enumerators, who will start during the first week of next month.