NPC wants N532.7bn to conduct 2023 census

The National Population Commission (NPC) has said it will need N532.7 billion to conduct a national census in April 2023.

The Chairman of the Commission, Nasir Kwarra, made this known to members of the Senate Committee on National Population and Identity Management during the 2023 budget defence session on Wednesday.

The N532.7 billion, he said, is purely a proposal for the conduct of the 2023 census which he said would be digitally done.

He said the NPC is ready to re-write the history of the census in Nigeria by making the 2023 exercise not only accurate, credible and reliable but also acceptable to all Nigerians.

He said the proposed sum for the conduct of the 2023 census covers post enumeration survey and the exercise will be a great departure from the past in terms of keying into the issue of climate change.

In the 2023 budgetary proposal for the agency, N1.05 billion was earmarked for capital expenditure, N655 million for overhead and N8.6 billion for personnel.

A total of N206.85 billion was appropriated for the commission out of which N107.7 billion was earmarked for capital expenditure, N615 million for overhead and N7.8 billion for personnel cost in 2022.

Mr Kwarra was, however, asked to provide details of projects executed by the commission in 2022.

Chairman of the Committee, Sahabi Ya’u (APC, Zamfara North), asked the NPC boss for line by line details of the 2022 projects and proposed projects for 2023.