President Bola Tinubu has inaugurated a high-level committee to oversee Nigeria’s upcoming national population and housing census, with instructions to deliver an interim report within three weeks. The ceremony, held at the State House in Abuja, saw the President represented by his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila.
The census will be Nigeria’s first in nearly two decades, as the last count conducted in 2006 recorded a population of 140,431,790 (71,345,488 males and 69,086,302 females). President Tinubu emphasized the importance of a technology-driven process to ensure credible results.
“Work with all relevant agencies, including the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning. This ministry has to take charge of this because you cannot budget if you do not know how many we are,” Tinubu stated. “We expect you will touch on the technology area because the census must be technology-driven. Things have changed since the last time that we conducted this exercise. The enumeration has to be technology-driven with biometrics and digitalisation.”
The committee, chaired by Senator Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, includes the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, the FIRS Chairman, the NIMC Director General, the President’s Principal Private Secretary, and his Senior Special Assistant on Administration and Operations. The National Population Commission Chairman, Nasir Isa Kwarra, will serve as committee secretary.
Bagudu assured that the committee would meet the three-week deadline, while Kwarra confirmed that preliminary preparations for the census have already begun in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
