17 years after the last nationwide census (which held in August 2006), the National Population Commission (NPC) has disclosed that Nigerians will be counted again from March 29 to April 2, 2023.
The census is long overdue. It should have held 10 years after the last one, but here we are. Nigeria happened to it.
According to NPC Chairman Nasir Kwarra, who spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday, January 20, the 2023 census will be remarkably different and will be conducted with fool-proof technology.
“By March 29 to April 2, our staff will be in the field enumerating people,” Kwarra said.
Kwarra added that the technological tools to be deployed would be able to code building and landmass, detailing information such as location, landscapes among others.
Assuring that his commission would ensure a credible exercise, Kwarra added that non-Nigerians would equally be counted as long as they are in the country during the period of the census.
He said folks won’t be able to game the exercise as is often the case, thanks to the level of technology that would be deployed.
Kwarra said, “From March 29 to April 2, our staff will be in the field enumerating people… This census is going to be different from past censuses. The theory and practice is essentially the same, but we are using high-end technology to conduct this census and it is such that nobody can tamper with any figure. Nobody will be counted more than once.
“We are visiting households to do direct interface with the household, collect data and in the past, if you are doing an operation manually, it is very cumbersome, but this is being aided by technology and I believe it is going to be transparent and very fast and it is going to be verifiable because we are able to provide data up to local government, up to wards level. So, it is something that you can always verify.”
He said a portal has been opened by the commission to recruit ad-hoc staff for the conduct of the exercise, adding that people recruited will be deployed to work in their localities.
The NPC Chairman also expressed hopes that the prevailing security situation in parts of the country won’t stymie the counting in affected states and localities.
Projections put Nigeria’s current population at 200 million.