Census materials reach West New Britain

Census materials needed to conduct the enumeration phase of the National Population and Housing Census have arrived in West New Britain Province.

The Provincial Census Coordinating team confirmed receiving the outstanding materials on a chartered plane from Port Moresby, on Wednesday.

Provincial Census Coordinator, Chris Marisa said the materials will be sorted out and distributed to the 186 census teams in the 12 local-level government areas of the province.

He explained that the process of distribution of materials will take a few days and the enumerations exercise should commence as soon as all teams are equipped with the census materials.

NBC News understands that the delay in the dispatching of the census materials is associated with administrative issues between the National Statistical Office, Air Niugini, and Post PNG.

However, those issues have been sorted out and the census materials are now with the provincial census authorities.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Administrative Services Richard Masare gave assurance that “we understand that there will be obstacles in terms of [transportation] for these materials [to arrive] on time but let me assure that materials will be received."