THE Federal Government today revealed plans to hold the national population census on April 2023; a month after the general elections scheduled for February and March by the Independent National Electoral Commission
The Director General of Nigeria Population Commission, Nasir Isa-Kwarra, disclosed this to State House Correspondents shortly after the end of the Council of State meeting Presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
While noting that the NPC would hold a pilot census in June after the political primaries, Isa-Kwarra noted that the commission will deploy high-grade technology during the exercise.
He lamented that the current data in use by the country 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. Because through census we generate the data that we use for policymaking, for planning, for development, by the three tiers of government, and the private sector, all need this.
“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.
“So census data is very crucial, very important. Because, the data we’ve been using are just projections, estimation and are sort of obsolete, we need the actual census data to use for our planning.”
