KEY POINTS

• President Bola Tinubu inaugurated a high-level committee to oversee Nigeria’s upcoming population and housing census, with a three-week deadline for an interim report.

• The committee, led by Senator Atiku Bagudu, aims to ensure a technology-driven and accurate census process, which is critical for national development and planning.

• The National Population Commission (NPC) is already collaborating with other stakeholders to ensure a credible census, with a focus on utilizing both domestic and international resources.

On April 16, 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu officially inaugurated a high-level committee tasked with overseeing Nigeria’s forthcoming national census.

The national census is set to be a crucial tool for national development, planning, and decision-making, with particular emphasis on sectors such as healthcare, education, security, and economic development.

The committee, chaired by the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu, has been given a three-week deadline to submit an interim report, which will lay the groundwork for the next steps of the census process.

According to Channelstv, the decision comes after nearly two decades since the last official census, which was conducted in 2006 and recorded a population of approximately 140.4 million people.

The national census is considered essential to ensure proper distribution of resources and to guide the nation’s developmental policies.

“This census will be pivotal in shaping Nigeria’s future,” President Tinubu emphasized during the inauguration. “We must ensure that it is driven by technology to ensure credible and verifiable results, which will enable effective decision-making in all sectors of our national life.”

Technology-driven process key to success of national census

During the event, which took place at the State House in Abuja, the President underscored the critical importance of a technology-driven approach to the census. He highlighted that the use of biometrics and digitalization would be central to the enumeration process, marking a departure from previous methods.

This push for a technology-driven census aims to provide more accurate and reliable data to support Nigeria’s ongoing development efforts.

“We cannot continue to plan for the future without knowing exactly how many people we are. The census must be modernized to ensure its accuracy and the efficient allocation of resources,” President Tinubu added.

The President also stressed the importance of collaboration among the various stakeholders, including government ministries, agencies, and international partners, to ensure the proper funding and execution of the project. He specifically called on the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning to take the lead in ensuring that the budget for the census is effectively managed and that both domestic and international resources are explored.