Nigeria to conduct census after presidential election
The Nigerian Government has said it would hold a national census in April 2023, after the general election coming up in February and March 2023.
Nasir Isa-Kwarra, the chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), said this after the Council of State meeting on Thursday.
He said the head count would be technology-driven, stating also that the exercise would help to generate fresh data needed for national planning.
“The National Population Commission is to conduct a Pilot Census in June this year, after the political parties’ primary elections. The last census was held in August 2006.
“It is very crucial to hold a census because it is a very important exercise for the nation. Because through the census we generate the data that we use for policy making, for planning, for development, by the three tiers of government, and the private sector, they 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,“ he said.