Catching Up On General Census Operation!

The decision taken on May 29, 2026 by the Prime Minister Head of Government to extend the deadline of the ongoing general population, housing and livestock census to July 31 laid to rest so many worries and rekindled hope that something could still come out of the exercise at the end. In fact, the joint data collection operations for the main phase of the 4th general population and housing census and the core module of the general agriculture and livestock census that ran from 24 April to 29 May 2026 left a soar taste in the mouths of many citizens. Difficult to say with precision how the mission was carried out within the initial timeframe. There seems to have been more confusion on the part of the census agents and the population than what was expected from them. The result is that villages and households were untouched and even areas that received the agents cannot comfortably talk of a smooth operation. Some houses were marked and their occupants not counted thereafter as was supposed to be the case. Others were not just reached at all. What the agents set out to do, what they actually did and a likely outcome of such a blurred task sent many tongues wagging. Disquieting indeed! Obviously so because the exercise was not planned overnight, much has been invested into it and the final results are very much awaited. For instance, it emerged from a joint press conference organised on April 29, 2026 in Yaounde to give details on the census operation that government and partners had drawn full length to make it successful. Government’s Spokesperson and Communication Minister made in clear that pilot tests carried out between October and November 2025 in Bamenda, Buea, Fongo Tongo and Mora revealed that 99.46% of the households surveyed willingly agreed to answer the census officers’ questions. Government also went ahead to establish Regional, Divisional and Subdivisional Committees chaired by administrative authorities as well as the involvement of all sectoral ministries. There was also a reported allocation of smartphones, power banks and means of transportation to census officers, the protection of teams by the Defence and Security Forces in sensitive areas and the provision of a toll-free number, “8585”, to address the population’s concerns. Salient measures meant to surmount logistical and security challenges. All of these were aimed at ensuring a smooth operation to culminate with verified and verifiable statistics on the country’s populations, housing units, agriculture and livestock output. As a matter of fact, an all-round general census like what government opted for is to better identify the number and needs of the population so that relevant and appropriate responses can be provided to their expectations. It is a powerful development tool that must not be toyed with. For, it is a compass on which government needs to plan its socio-economic development. In effect, the decision to create a school, open health structures, develop national, regional, divisional, farm-to-markets roads and even deploy human and allocate financial resources is directed by the number of people in each locality. Without a clear idea on the valuable statistics, the probability of over or under-estimation becomes high. This becomes challenging when much is expected to be done with scarce resources. Careful, resourceful and results-driven growth planning should be based on quantifiable needs, else some parts would be abandoned and resources wasted in others. Enemies of equitable growth! Like the Government’s Spokesperson rightly put it, in addition to producing statistical data, the two operations aim to provide the Government of Cameroon with an upto- date governance tool designed to support the implementation of the National Development Strategy (NDS30) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The general population and housing census and the agriculture and livestock census, are therefore much more than mere statistical exercises. In reality, they...