President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assures the National Population Commission (NPC) of support in conducting the national census, which has suffered several postponements.
Last March, the then Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed announced the postponement of the population and housing census, which was originally set for the end of that month.
He explained that the decision by the Federal Executive Council to move the date was necessitated by the rescheduling of the governorship election to from 11th to 18th March.
He also disclosed that the Council approved N2.8 billion for the NPC to procure some software to be used for the conduct of the census.
At the launch of the electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System (eCRVS), and the National Geospatial Data Repository at the State House, on Wednesday, President Tinubu assured NPC of the Federal Government’s support to conduct the botched census.
Nigeria last conducted a census in 2006, with the result putting the population of the country at 140.43 million people. Another census was due in 2016. But it was postponed.
While calling for collaboration among Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government, President Tinubu 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.
According to the President, Nigeria has a lot to be grateful for because it is not prone to natural disasters.
The immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari released N200 billion to the NPC to conduct a national census.
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.
