FG fixes April 2023 for first census in 17 years

The Federal Government on Thursday in Abuja revealed plans to hold the national population census in April 2023.

This is the first time such exercise will be holding in 17 years.

It was reported that the Federal Government had planned to conduct the exercise in 2021 but it was later put off largely due to insecurity in parts of the country.

The last time Nigeria conducted the exercise was in 2006.

That exercise put the country’s population at 140.43 million-71.3 million males and 69.0 million females.

The Director-General of Nigeria Population Commission, Nasir Isa Kwarra, disclosed the plan to conduct census in 2023 at the end of a meeting of the Council of State presided over by the president, Muhammadu Buhari.

While noting that the NPC would hold a pilot census in June (this year) after the political primaries, Isa Kwarra noted that the commission would deploy high grade technology during the exercise.

He lamented that the country’s current data are obsolete projections, saying that the census would provide more accurate data for national planning.

“It is very crucial because i have highlighted that the census is a very important exercise for the nation. Through census, we generate the data that we use for policy making, planning, development, the three tiers of government and the private sector all need these.

“If you are a private sector, you’re producing something. Certainly, you need to know the population of an area if you want to create a market there.

The data we’ve been using are just projections and estimation and are obsolete, we need the actual census data for our planning”.

It was earlier reported that the census would gulp over N400bn.