The federal government says it is planning to hold a national census by April 2023 after the general election.
Nasir Kwarra, director-general of National Population Commission (NPC), disclosed this on Thursday at the end of the council of state meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The NPC is expected to conduct a pilot census in June 2022 after political party primaries.
Kwarra said the commission will deploy high technology in conducting the national census.
The NPC boss said through census, data is generated for planning, adding that the data currently being used are “mere projections and obsolete”.
“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, they all need this,” he said.
“If you are in the private sector and 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, estimations, and are sort of obsolete. We need the actual census data to use for our planning.”
In December 2020, NPC had said an estimated 206 million people are living in Nigeria — an increase of eight million people in two years.
The commission had announced that the country’s population was 198 million in 2018.
The country’s national census was last conducted in 2006.
