President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said increasing population in the urban centres across the country emanated from extreme poverty and unemployment in the rural areas.
The President said this when he hosted the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Isa Kwarra, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The President pledged his support for the commission to conduct an accurate census.
It was gathered that President Tinubu will pick new dates for the national population and housing census that was postponed last April.
A statement by the President’s Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Mr. Dele Alake, said President Tinubu emphasised the need for NPC to be prudent in its assignment and work towards producing a census data that would be credible and reliable.
The statement said the President expressed concern over the delay in conducting a census since the last one in 2006.
“It is disappointing that up until now we have not been able to conduct another enumeration of our people. I hope this delay will be converted to a great opportunity in this electronic and digital age.
“The challenge is yours and I hope that during the demarcation you did, you would have noticed the migration of people to urban centres because of extreme poverty and unemployment.
“Digitalising the process will make your job easier. I don’t see why we don’t, by now, have a reliable database in Nigeria to identify ourselves and ascertain our numbers for planning purposes and in time of disasters.
“I have listened to you and we will support you. Accuracy and integrity of your data is very important to Nigerians and for our national economic development programmes,” President Tinubu said.
Kwarra briefed the President on the implementation status of the 2023 population and housing census, requesting the proclamation for a new census date later this year or early next year.
The NPC chairman spoke about the funding challenges the commission was facing.
In a paper, titled: Implementation Status of the 2023 Population and Housing Census, Kwarra requested for the release of N31 billion capital allocation appropriated in the 2023 budget for the commission’s preparatory activities.
He put the total cost of the census, after a methodology review, at N546.72 billion.
Kwarra also sought the President’s approval for an additional N225.2 billion to cover training and fieldwork allowances, retraining of trainers, and the conduct of a second-class trial census.
He also asked President Tinubu to approve and convene a stakeholders’ meeting with the organised private sector and foreign partners to galvanise funds for the exercise.
The NPC boss said Nigeria had developed a database that could be useful in national planning, infrastructure development, and revenue generation for the government.
