Twelve days to the commencement of the national population and housing census, uncertainties have continued to trail the planned headcount and there are indications that it may be shifted due to funding and other logistic challenges.
It was gathered on Friday that the National Population Commission might again postpone the census as it struggled to raise the required funds.
Earlier in March, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, disclosed that the Federal Government planned to establish a basket fund to collect donations for the 2023 population and housing census.
He made this disclosure at a high-level partners’ engagement to seek support for the census in Abuja.
Agba had noted that a total of N869bn was needed for the census, adding that the government committed N291.5bn to it with the need for an additional N327.2bn.
The minister had stated, “The total requirement for the census (including post-census activities) is N869bn ($1.88bn): census requirement – N626bn ($1.36bn), which is about $6 per capita (just slightly above the threshold of up to $5 per capita); post-census (up to 2025) is N243bn ($527m).
“So far, the government has committed N291.5bn ($632m) to the census, making it 46 per cent of the total funding for the census. An additional (immediate) sum of N327.2bn ($709.9m) is required to complete the census.”
