President Bola Tinubu says the Federal Government will give the National Population Commission (NPC) all the support it needs to conduct the National Population and Housing census in the country.
The President said this on Wednesday, at the launch of the National Geospatial Data Repository, Digital CRVS System, and inauguration of the National Coordination Committee for CRVS at the Presidential Villa Abuja.
While calling for collaboration among Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government, the president underscored the relevance of data to national growth.
He called on the census experts to deploy cutting-edge technology in gathering data on Nigeria’s population, saying the nation cannot afford to lag behind in efficient data sourcing.
Recall that the immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari released the sum of N200 billion to the Population Commission to conduct a national census originally fixed for 2023
While a large chunk of the funds were deployed by the agency in the preliminary stages of the census collation, the Federal Government had to postpone the exercise owing to other exigencies.
Before a new administration came on board, Nigerians were anticipating the next national exercise that seeks to have accurate data on the number of individuals that reside in the 923,768 sq. km territory.
Described as the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria last conducted its population census in 2006, which concluded that the total population was 140 million.
Seventeen years down the line, the country is yet to conduct another census which is against the 10 years recommendation of the United Nations for countries to do the exercise to avail them on data of population size which helps for development and planning for policy intervention.
Consequently, the country has over the years relied on population estimates by the United Population Development Fund (UNFPA) to estimate its population.
The census, initially stated for March 29 to April 2 was shifted to May 3 to May 7 due to postponement of the gubernatorial elections by a week.
It was later postponed indefinitely by the Buhari administration allowing the incoming government of Bola Tinubu to fix a new date for the exercise.
