The Federal Government plans to allocate an additional N1.1 billion in the 2025 budget for the long-delayed national population and housing census, marking a notable increase from the N693.3 million set aside in 2024.
According to the PUNCH, N527 million has been earmarked for other census-related activities in the 2025 budget, which is currently under review by the National Assembly.
Some of the proposed allocations include N78 million for the national population data bank, the Nigerian population database management system, and hosting of the population website and web portal. N2.7 million is designated for preparing the Enumeration Area Demarcation concept manual, while N10 million is for census programs in schools.
N25 million is allocated for the second pretest, and N10 million for a stakeholders conference to present the 2018 census instrument. Other activities include N2.5 million for developing small area/EA level databases for spatial analysis and dissemination, and N2 million for field demarcation in all 774 local government areas.
Further provisions include N17.7 million for intercensal population activities, which involve various surveys and projections, and the creation of a small area-level database.
The budget also includes N247.3 million for census publicity and advocacy through print and electronic media, as well as N40 million for census research, documentation, and archiving related to special populations such as herdsmen, fishermen, and migrant farmers.
Additionally, N2.3 million is set aside for cartographic consumables, and N90 million for celebrating World Population Day and the annual population census day.
Nigeria’s most recent census was in 2006, despite the United Nations recommending that countries conduct population counts every 10 years.
Initially planned for May 3-7, 2023, the census was indefinitely postponed under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
At that time, the National Population Commission estimated that N532.7 billion would be needed to carry out the census, a figure later revised by former Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, to N869 billion, with N291.5 billion already spent and an additional N327.2 billion required.
Despite the postponement, the NPC reported spending N200 billion on planning and partial execution of the census.
NPC Chairman, Nasir Kwarra, expressed optimism in November 2024 that the Presidency would approve the census for 2025.
