NPC seeks N1.1bn for population, housing census, plans use of biometrics

The National Population Commission (NPC) has proposed a budget of N1.1 billion for National Population and Housing Census. This marks an increase from the N693 million allocated to the Commission for the same purpose in 2024.

The proposal is contained in the 2025 budget proposal of the Commission before the National Assembly. Though the amount was allocated for census, Nasir Isa Kwarra did not confirm in definite terms that the census would be conducted in 2025, during budget defence session with the joint Committee on National Identity Management and Population on Tuesday.

Kwarra however said concerted efforts were being made to ensure that the census is conducted in 2025. He informed Lawmakers that President Bola Tinubu had indicated that he wanted the census to be conducted with biometrics because of the prevailing situation in the Country on terms of security and otherwise.

The Chairman added that the use of biometrics would ensure that results reflect the true population of the Country and not the manipulated one.

“We don’t want to be accusing the riverine people of counting fishes, and the North of counting cows, so if we do census with biometrics, we can be definitely sure that people were actually engaged’, Kwarra said.

The Chairman also said that the N693 million budgeted last year was used to prepare for census. He added that the Commission was trying to incorporate the biometric component into it and would do some piloting to see how it would work.

Members of the Committee charged the NPC Chairman to ensure that the census hold in 2025 or before the 2027 general elections.

Abdul Ningi, Chairman of the Senate Committee noted that the Senate would meet with President Tinubu to stress the urgency of conducting the census in 2025.

Read also: No plan to conduct census in 2025 yet – Population commission

“We will soon engage the President on this matter and formally write to him through the Senate President, highlighting the need for a census this year,” he said.

Nigeria last conducted census in 2006, despite recommendation that Countries conduct population census every 10 years. The national census was initially scheduled for May 2023, but was postponed indefinitely during the tenure of former Muhammadu Buhari.

Diket Plang, a member of the Senate Committee, decried that the Country’s continued reliance on old estimated population figures. He said the performance of the Commission would be on the conduct of a successful census.

“It’s disheartening that we are still working with estimates in this modern age. How can we plan without knowing the exact population? It’s sad that 2024 passed without achieving 90% performance,” he said.