DODOMA: PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has called for effective utilisation of the 2022 National Population and Housing Census data in planning for social, economic and political programmes for the country to benefit more from the population mapping.
Speaking on Friday after receiving the census publications at the Chamwino State House in Dodoma, President Samia said effective utilisation of the census data will enable the national plans to be realistic and well implemented.
Elaborating, the Head of the State unveiled that the census report has come at the right when the government has formed a new Ministry of Planning and Investment as well as the Planning Commission.
President Samia said she was optimistic that the created commission under the planning docket will fully use the 2022 census data as the baseline in planning various development projects and national plans in general.
“The 2022 National Population and Housing Census results will be used as the baseline by the Planning Commission under the new formulated Ministry of Planning and Investment in planning various programmes for the country’s development”, President Samia insisted.
Adding: “When we (Tanzania) prepare the country’s Development Vision 2050, these statistics will be our baseline and the Planning Commission will use the obtained findings to implement the national plan”.
The Head of State directed permanent secretaries to ensure they have the National Population and Housing Census report and utilise it in their sectors.
“The work done by the government is great in terms of development, but these statistics (the 2022 National Population and Housing Census) tell us that there is still a work that needs to be done in various sectors…so as you are leading various sectors, this report will serve as the baseline,” she added.
On October 31, 2022 President Samia officially announced the 2022 Population and Housing Census results in Dodoma.
The results showed that Tanzania had a population of 61,741,120 people of whom 59,851,347 were in Mainland and 1,889,773 people were in Zanzibar.
The results also indicated that Dar es Salaam was the most populous region of the country with 5.38 million people, followed by Mwanza with 3.69 inhabitants.
Just ten years ago when the previous census was released, Tanzania had a population of 44,928,923, so there has been an increase of 16,812,197 people, which corresponds to a growth of +3.2 per cent per year between 2012 and 2022.
During the presentation of the census, President Samia explained that the data would be used by the government to formulate and implement sectoral development policies and plans at all levels of the public administration.
“Such population might not be a big deal for a huge country like ours, but it’s a burden when it comes to allocating resources and delivering social services. We need to start preparing development projects for these people and make necessary reforms in our policies,” she was quoted as saying.
