The Chairman of the National Population Census, Nasir Kwarra, requested the addition of N256bn to the release of the allocated N31 billion capital allocation, in the 2023 budget, for preparatory activities ahead of the exercise.
Kwarra was at the State House to brief President Bola on the Implementation Status of the 2023 Population and Housing Census.
He then seized the opportunity to request the issuance of a proclamation for a new Census date in ending of 2023 or early 2024.
He also requested that President Bola Tinubu approves an additional N225.2 billion to cover training and fieldwork allowances, retraining of trainers, and the conduct of a second-class Trial Census.
The NPC Chairman also pegged the total cost of the exercise at N546.72 billion.
The Chairman confirmed that the NPC had trained 60,000 instructors who would later train enumerators and supervisors.
He said plans were being concluded for final training but were disrupted due to the transition programme for a new government and funding challenges.
This necessitated the postponement of the exercise by the immediate-past President Muhammadu Buhari, he explained.
Kwarra also highlighted the funding challenges faced by the Commission, saying they were waiting on the President to support NPC and approve the conduct of the census.
“NPC, having completed Mapping in March 2022, tested the market with the geospatial data by making it available to researchers at a ‘test price’ where it generated over N5 million through REMITA.
“To this end, with fully integrated spatial and statistical data, government geospatial policy and coordination, NPC can generate up to $14 billion and further save a lot of resources for the nation through automation of economic planning by 2028,” Kwarra said.
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