More than 100 000 apply for census jobs

Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) statistician general Alex Shimuafeni says the vehicles that will be selected to carry out census work will be compensated at a daily average rate of N$2 000, while 101 009 applications were received for various field staff positions during the counting exercise.

“Since this daily rate is what NSA will be offering and what the vehicle owners will be accepting, there is no price bidding by vehicle owners. The method of selection to be used will be a random selection of equal chance per constituency,” he said in a statement released on Thursday.

Shimuafeni said since they have registered more vehicles than what they would need, the vehicles that are not selected will automatically be part of the reserved vehicles (that is, vehicles on stand-by) in case there is a need for replacements.

“This random selection process will be conducted via computer-generated random numbers under the supervision of an external auditor, as well as an NSA auditor.

NSA will publish information on successful bidders on its website, social media platforms and through the various constituency offices.

Over 2 800 vehicles will be needed for the enumeration exercise countrywide and more than 8 000 vehicles were registered during the process,” he said.

Shimuafeni said a total of 101 009 applications were received for various field staff positions alone through the NSA online recruitment system.

“A further 10 485 applications were received for the office-based positions. We require approximately 13 000 suitably qualified persons to be employed on a temporary basis to carry out the work in the different phases of the census,” he said.

He added that NSA would give preference to persons who have disabilities, “depending on the nature of disability and provided that they meet the requirements of the positions applied”.

Shimuafeni said the census is a national project, which demands the support and cooperation of every citizen.

“NSA has earlier urged all members of society to embrace this initiative and actively participate when enumerators visit their households. As part of ensuring that the nation is aware that there is a census, NSA is using SMSes to spread the message to the nation,” he said.