2020 census of population to gobble K820 million.

The Central Statistics office says a total of K820 million will be required to successfully undertake the 2020 population and housing census.

CSO Director, Goodson Sinyenga says the 2020 census will be conducted electronically using tablets and electronic questionnaires for acquisition of data.

Mr. Sinyenga has explained that the K820 million will be used for procurement of the tablets, procurement of vehicles to be used and payment of allowances, accommodation and food for the officers who will be engaged among others.

He has however, stated that the number of officers to be engaged to undertake the exercise has drastically reduced, considering that the process will be conducted electronically meaning there will not be much paper work involved.

Mr. Sinyenga says the electronic process will also help in ensuring that the results of the collected data are released quickly as the transfer of the data will almost be done automatically from the tablets to the central office.

He has stated that the CSO has already been experimenting on the e-process using some handheld devices to ensure that the process is effective come august 2020.

And Mr. Sinyenga has disclosed that government has through the treasury so far released a total of K115.4 million for the mapping activities of the 2020 census exercise.