Population census: Gov’t should live up to its billings.

The enumeration operation was combined with the General Agriculture and Livestock Census. Merging of the population and livestock count was decided as early as in 2019, by the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Dr Chief Joseph Dion Ngute, to optimise implementation costs. 

The goal is also to obtain up-to-date data on agriculture, and livestock farming to better inform public policy. 

For the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the exercise is of major strategic importance, as it will notably allow for a better understanding of the country's urban structure, an assessment of the number of dwellings and their occupancy rates, as well as an evaluation of the extent of overcrowding, inadequate housing, and population displacement.

Among the innovations introduced is the geolocation to identify inhabited areas at risk or difficult to access and to provide data to the National Urban Observatory.

The census will also collect information on waste and wastewater disposal methods; to facilitate the planning of sanitation infrastructure, green spaces, and recreational facilities

For The Guardian Post, it is a worthy initiative, though belated, especially given that the last census took place in 2005, and its result released 10 years later. It made it obsolete for any statistical development.

As of now, the population of the country has been a matter of rough estimates, with both the World Bank and World Barometer, with trusted data, putting it at 30.6 million people in 2026.

The country, by their analysis, gives a median age of 18.2 years, indicative of a young demographic, nearly 60% of its residents living in urban areas and a growth rate of 2.8 percent or 2,000 people daily, through natural increase and migration.

The fourth census is coming after those of 1976, the first official headcount after independence; that of 1987, which the government never officially published the full detailed results and that of 2005, which recorded a population of roughly 17.4 million people.

At reunification, the West Cameroon, which is today the North West and South West Regions, had a population of 850,000, while East Cameroon had 3.2 million. 

Going by the current estimates, the Anglophone population should be 6,732,000.

But does the development and infrastructure in the two English-speaking Regions reflect that 22 percent as at reunification? 

With the desertion, following the ongoing conflict in the two Regions, will an accurate count be obtained?

If a credible enumeration is not done, will the people of the two Regions, not continue to complain of marginalisation and neglect of social amenities and infrastructure? 

Will Anglophones not continue to be cheated in allocation of parliamentary seats like is the situation where Meme Division, for instance, with an identical population like that of the South Region, has two parliamentarians while the South Region has 11?

These are the discrepancies and inequalities a reliable census is perceived to address, but it is having daunting obstacles. 

Due to such hiccups, an exercise for which some 355,000 agents were recruited to update the country's demographic and agricultural data, using smartphones for data collection, slated to end on May 29, 2026, will now continue until July 31, 2026.

In ordering the extension, the Prime Minister cited multiple challenges reported in the field, such as delayed payments, with some temporarily threatening to go on strike.

In several areas, some enumerators reportedly did not begin operations on the planned date. There have also been reports of difficulties during fieldwork, including cases of alleged mistreatment of census staff and resistance from parts of the population; further slowing down data collection, which should eventual tarnish the outcome of the census results.

The Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, with ears on the ground, has even raised an alarm of a “Poor performance currently recorded”.     

In “a very urgent message,”  signed on July 17, 2026, which is available on the social media, he instructed Divisional Officers, DOs; through Senior Divisional Officers, SDOs and  Governors; to mobilise traditional chiefs, political and religious leaders, elected officials, and community leaders to support the census enumerators.

He also ordered them to personally visit the field daily, until the end of the census and issue a daily report on the progress of the enumeration in their jurisdictions.

On social media, the anger of citizens who have not been counted is palpable. 

A reporter in an urban area in Fako Division, has confirmed he has never seen any enumerator. Others say the same thing in the social media, proving that it is not an isolated case.

As we see it at The Guardian Post, the cornucopia of complaints sparks broader concerns that can affect the overall reliability and completeness of the data being collected, especially as the deadline is just in a matter of days.

At this point, we can only get on the same page with MINAT, to appeal to the enumerators to work diligently with the population.

However, government must remunerate them in time to carry out the assignments, otherwise it would have failed to achieve the objective of guiding equitable and judicious development of the country.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3854 of Tuesday July 21, 2026