We’ll conduct census in Sambisa Forest – NPC

The Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Kwarra, has said insecurity will not deter it from conducting the 2023 census as those residing in Sambisa Forest will also be counted during the exercise.

He said houses in the forest had already been enumerated during the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD), thus that nothing would stop it from conducting the census in other parts of the country.

Kwarra said this during a presentation at the 24th edition of President Buhari Administration Scorecard yesterday in Abuja.

He said the enumeration had made the commission have digital data of all houses in the country, stating that the method would prevent the wrong capture of data during the exercise.

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When asked on how much had been spent on the exercise so far, he said over N100bn had been put into the preparatory stage of the exercise.

He said, “We started the enumeration area demarcation about five years ago; the money that was given was small, but when Mr President came on board and made up his mind that the census should hold, he gave us an initial sum of N10bn for us to do the EAD.

“This is because it is an exercise that requires the use of technology and we have been able to produce a digital map of the houses in the country with the use of digital technology, GIS, GPS, satellite imageries and deploying people to all the nook and cranny of this country. In the conduct of the preparatory activities of the census, the greater chunk of money came in the 2022 national budget as we were given N197bn, though not all has been disbursed.”

On his part, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the exercise would positively rewrite the history of census in Nigeria through meticulous planning and massive deployment of technology.