The Nigeria’s National Council of State, Thursday, approved April 2023 for national census to be conducted by the National Population Commission (NPC).
Director-General of National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Isa-Kwarra, disclosed this to State House Correspondents after a meeting of the Council of State presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Isa-Kwarra also said the NPC would be conducting a pilot census from June 2022 after political parties must have concluded their pre-general elections activities.
The NPC boss, recalled that the last census exercise held in 2006, noting that the commission will deploy high technology for the forthcoming exercise.
He said census data is generated for planning, noting that the data currently being used are mere projections and obsolete.
Isa-Kwarra said: “It is very crucial because I have highlighted that the census 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.“
