President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has urged the National Population Commission (NPC) to go ahead with the preparations for the postponed national population census.
Chairman of the NPC, Mr Nasir Kwarra, said this to State House correspondents after he led a delegation of the commission to the Presidential Villa in Abuja to meet with the President.
On the new date for the census, Kwarra said they presented details of their preparation to the President and he will decide when the census will hold.
“You will recall that in May 2023 we had a meeting with former President Muhammadu Buhari. Where the decision was taken to postpone the census and allow the new administration to not just partake in it but to own it and drive the process to its logical conclusion.
“Today, we had an opportunity to brief our new President on the steps we have so far taken and he considered and the President has graciously approved to support the Commission in the conduct of the census.
“Our preparatory activities will not stop at all. He has given us the courage and impetus to scale up our preparations. So we will continue and we will hear from him on the date that the census will hold because he will study our submission before coming back to us. As for assurance and support to us, he has given that to us and we thank him immensely for that,” he said.
The NPC Chairman, who disclosed that over N200 billion will be spent on the census, cautioned that the country might incur additional expenses if the census is delayed for a long time.
Also speaking, NPC’s Director of Data Quality Management, Mrs Foluke Adebayo, said the money spent on the census would in-turn be an investment for the country.
“The money that has been spent especially for pre-field exercise for the census, is actually going to be a huge investment for Nigeria because the Geo Special Industry all over the world has a very bright future and Nigeria has to be one of the first in Africa that has generated the kind of data; Geo Special Data that we have generated for the census.
“This Geo Special Data is going to be integrated with the Statistical Data that we are going to collect on the field and that means that every population and housing data we are generating is going to be geo-referenced.
“Aside from that we are creating other Geo Special resources like a compendium of locality for the entire country. We are right now collaborating with Nigeria Postal Service; we are delineating Nigeria into the postcode area which is the 2nd in Africa.
“Nigeria is doing a lot towards the digital economy and with the postcode area delineation we are going to come up with an address system for the country and there are other resources. The Geo Special industry by the year 2028 will be generating up to $145 billion and Nigeria will be part of those who will benefit from the Geo Special industry,” he said.
