The Chairman of the National Population Census (NPC), Nasir Kwarra, met with President Bola Tinubu in Abuja to discuss the implementation status of the 2023 Population and Housing Census.
Kwarra requested the release of the allocated N31 billion capital allocation from the 2023 budget to fund preparatory activities for the census.
Additionally, he sought approval from President Tinubu for an extra N225.2 billion to cover training and fieldwork allowances, retraining of trainers, and the conduct of a second-class Trial Census. The total estimated cost of the census was pegged at N546.72 billion.
Kwarra informed the President that the NPC had already trained 60,000 instructors who would further train enumerators and supervisors for the census.
However, the final training plans were disrupted due to the transition program for the new government and funding challenges. As a result, the census had to be postponed by the previous President, Muhammadu Buhari.
The NPC Chairman emphasized the funding challenges faced by the Commission and expressed the need for President Tinubu’s support and approval to proceed with the census. He assured that the entire country had been demarcated, with only a few places remaining to be completed in the near future.
In a document titled “Implementation Status of the 2023 Population and Housing Census,” the NPC requested the release of the allocated N31 billion from the 2023 budget for preparatory activities. The Commission estimated the total cost of the census, following a methodology review, to be N546.72 billion.
Kwarra also urged President Tinubu to convene a stakeholders’ meeting involving the organized private sector and foreign partners to mobilize funds for the census.
The NPC Chairman highlighted the significance of the census in developing a comprehensive database for national planning, infrastructure development, and revenue generation for the government.
The NPC’s geospatial data had already generated over N5 million through REMITA, and with further integration and automation, it was projected to contribute significantly to economic planning and savings for the nation by 2028, potentially amounting to $14 billion.
President Tinubu pledged his support for the NPC and stressed the importance of data integrity in conducting an accurate census.