There are indications that the conduct of the National Population and Housing Census may not be held this year, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.
Nigeria has been brandishing an estimated figure for the last few years, as the last census was conducted in 2006 by the National Population Commission, which gave a population figure of 140 million.
The immediate-past administration of former President, Muhammadu Buhari, had planned to conduct another census in 2022 but the programme was later moved to 2023.
One of the NPC Commissioners who anonymously spoke to our correspondent on Friday said the commission was not looking at holding the census in 2023.
The source, however, added that it was still awaiting a date from President Bola Tinubu.
The source said, “We were on the verge of concluding the census process when it was suspended. It means that we were ready at that time to complete the census process. Even presently we are prepared to continue with the process.
“However, President Bola Tinubu has the best information about when things can be done. We made a presentation to him. He promised to study the presentation and revert to the commission afterward.
“Most of the preparatory activities we must do have been done. We have started the training and once we have a nod, we shall continue with our training process.
“On our part, we are not looking at conducting a census this year. We are already in November.
“Even the training process requires more than two months to complete. We expect that there will be adequate budgetary provisions to conclude the process. But as soon as the president gives the nod, we will know how many months that we require to complete the process.”
(Punch)
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