NAIRAMETRICS
One year has elapsed since former President Mohammadu Buhari approved the postponement of the 2023 population and housing census.
The suspension was disclosed in a press statement signed by the former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed. The minister noted that the president approved it following a meeting with Nasir Isa-Kwarra, the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), and the Accountant General of the Federation, the Finance Minister and some other members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
However, the former Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, said that a total of N869 billion was needed for the census, noting that the government committed N291.5 billion with the need for an additional N327.2 billion from the private sector.
The census was slated for May 3-7, 2023, but was postponed indefinitely by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Justifying the amount spent, the former commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr Isiaka Yahaya, earlier said:
He said:
- “Consistent with global practice and inspired by an unswerving commitment to positively rewrite the history of the census in Nigeria, the Commission opted to conduct a digital census deploying the technology on a massive scale.
- “In a country struggling with an acute infrastructural deficit, this massive undertaking cannot come cheap but at a huge cost. Yes, it is true that N200bn has been spent on preparations for the 2023 census so far. However, this fund was not expended in the last few weeks, months, or years but rather since 2014 when preparations for the 2023 census actually began. Indeed, part of the N200bn was expended before the coming of the present Commission, which was inaugurated twice between 2018 and 2020 and even before the inception of the Buhari administration.”
The former director also disclosed that several items have been procured in preparation for the census, such as the procurement of computers, laptops, desktops, printers, software, and solar power systems for the census, among others.
He added that about 810,000 personal digital assistant devices were acquired for the 2023 census and were stored in all the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) offices across the country.
