The proposed N869 billion 2023 Population and Housing Census was given a boost on Monday by the federal government of Nigeria, which made a plea for technical and financial support in important yet unfinished preliminary operations.

The training session is scheduled for March 29 to April 2, 2023.

At a well-attended high-level partners’ engagement in Abuja on Monday, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, and her Minister of State counterpart, Clem Agba, requested local and global support for the conduct of the next enumeration effort.

In her remarks, Ahmed stressed the importance of addressing the inconsistencies in the national census and statistics systems, which hinder the effectiveness of development projects based on out-of-date data.

She claimed that nearly 20 years after the 2006 Census, it had become critical and necessary for Nigeria to conduct a new census, as specified in the National Development Plan 2021–2025.

When compared to the urgent demands for social welfare and human capital development, she said: “Our main difficulty over the years has been the lack and/or inadequate money to readily carry out such large projects.

“It is worthy to note that 60 percent of the funding and other requirements for the 2006 Census could not have been achieved without the invaluable support of the development partners, corporate bodies, and other key stakeholders.

“Indeed, the partnership and collaboration in carrying out the 2006 National Census took a lot of burden off the Government of Nigeria and enabled us to conduct a credible exercise whose outcome, served through the years.”

The minister acknowledged that Nigeria sincerely values and acknowledges the impact of the support in enshrined systems and tenets while praising the European Union (EU), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), among other development partners and key stakeholders whose invaluable and generous support gave huge credibility to the 2006 Census.

“As we work towards actualizing the conduct of the 2023 National Census which is transformational for Nigeria, we are equally confident of a more robust network of partners that share in our aspiration for making available credible and acceptable population and housing data that will meet the needs of various stakeholders,” she said.

She emphasized a few key initiatives that had been successfully accomplished in the run-up to the federal government’s conduct of the Population and Housing Census in 2023.

With the exception of Abadam Local Government in Borno State, she said that 773 of the country’s 774 local government areas had been divided into Enumeration Areas (EA), adding that a hybrid enumeration method was being created for its demarcation.

She also revealed that the First and Second Pretests, Trial Census, Trial Post Enumeration Survey, and Mapping of Special Populations (homeless, hunters, fishermen, and nomads) had all been completed in order to ensure that no resident of Nigeria was left uncounted.

In order to ensure compliance with the global climate change campaign’s goal of reducing emissions by 30% unconditionally and another 15% conditionally by 2030, the minister announced that the 2023 exercise would be a “Green Census” involving the use of digital maps, a digital questionnaire, and cloud computing.

In his speech, Agba praised the 36 federated states for their public support of the upcoming census.

In order to ensure compliance with the global climate change campaign’s goal of reducing emissions by 30% unconditionally and another 15% conditionally by 2030, the minister announced that the 2023 exercise would be a “Green Census” involving the use of digital maps, a digital questionnaire, and cloud computing.

In his speech, Agba applauded the 36 federated states for their public support of the upcoming census.

He emphasized that their verbal support should change to a financial commitment, describing the census as a national initiative that benefits all social classes and levels of government.

Agba estimated the entire expenditure for the exercise (including post-census operations) at N869 billion ($1.88 billion), noting that the process was significantly capital-intensive.

He said that the true cost of the census was N626 billion ($1.36 billion), or $6 per person, while the N243 billion ($527 million) cost was for post-census activities.