The Federal Government of Nigeria has postponed the 2023 population census till May 2023. The digital census was initially scheduled to commence on the 29th of March but a postponement was necessary because the nation has just undergone its presidential, gubernatorial and senate elections.
The country’s leadership has also approved N2.8 billion for the procurement of software for the execution of the 2023 digital population and housing census.
Minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this at a recent Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
The minister mentioned that the National Population Commission (NPC) had sought the approval of the FEC for purchasing software costing N2.8 billion for the digital census, which has now been granted.
Months ago, the executive chairman of the NPC, Hon. Nasir Isa Kwarra said the NPC had introduced new technologies such as Census pad and CSPro to ensure that the exercise is credible, reliable and acceptable.
The commission, in a statement on its website, said the field operations for the digital census would begin with building and household listing, but this time, using digital maps as against paper maps used in previous census exercises.
The digital census maps will be created with the demarcation of enumeration areas covering the entire territorial space of Nigeria using mobile handheld device and geographic information systems, GIS, and satellite imageries.
Geospatial and infrastructure data as well as the enumeration form will be uploaded on the PDAs and data collection will be done through computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI).
This is Nigeria’s first fully digital census exercise and the Federal Government had raised a budget of over $1.88 billion for the entire process.
The minister of state for budget and national planning said the federal government has provided 46% of the budget leaving an outstanding of $327 billion. The NPC has said it is fully prepared for the census come May 2023.