Zinox Technologies will supply digital assistants for Nigeria's 2023 census

Zinox Technologies, a pioneer original equipment manufacturer in West Africa has been awarded an ₦85 billion contract by the Nigerian government to supply Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) devices required for the 2023 national census in the country.

The Nigeria-based technology firm emerged as the preferred technical partner for the exercise after scaling through a bidding process involving other local and international competitors.

"We are deploying all our resources to make sure it is successful," Kelechi Okonta, MD of Zinox Technologies, said. The PDAs will be encrypted with census questionnaires and maps to direct enumerators to assigned enumeration areas, this is to ensure the accuracy of the data collected.

Zinox on Friday, February 3, 2023, supplied the first batch of the devices, about a hundred units. "The geospatial resources that NPC has acquired will be deployed on the devices. This will ensure that all Nigerians are counted where they are and live. We will also be able to collect statistics on housing types and characteristics for better physical and social planning by the government for the nation," Nasir Isa Kwarra, chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), stated.

Recall that Zinox introduced automation of Nigerian elections, first with the introduction of the Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines which helped to clean up the nation’s voter register and later the card reader which enhanced the credibility of elections in Nigeria in recent years.

Zinox Technologies had also executed major projects offshore in Guinea Bissau, The Gambia and the Arab nations through partnerships. In 2018, the OEM acquired Konga, a Nigerian e-commerce company, in an undisclosed deal sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission.