2023 Census Will Provide Reliable Data For Local Governance, Planning –NPC Chair

The chairman National Population Commission (NPC), Hon Nasir Isa Kwarra, has said the 2023 census will produce reliable data that will promote local governance and planning purposes.

This is just as he said Nigeria’s inability to conduct a population census in the last 16 years has created an information vacuum “as the data from the last Census conducted in 2006 has been rendered less useful for planning purposes”.

He stated this while speaking as the special guest of honour at a presidential dinner in honour of graduands of senior executive course (SEC) 44 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Abuja organized by the Alumni Association of the National Institute (AANI) with the theme “Strengthening Local Governance in Nigeria”,.

He said “Sustainable development must be grassroots oriented and must proceed from bottom to top. The significance therefore of putting in place a strong local governance structure that will respond to imperatives of development at the local government level cannot be over emphasized”.

He noted that the theme of the dinner coming at a time when preparations for the conduct of the 2023 Population and Housing Census are in top gear, fits perfectly into the commission’s mandate to provide accurate and reliable demographic data for evidence based local governance in Nigeria.

“Data from the 2023 Census will not be produced only at the national and state levels but will be disaggregated up to wards and localities level. In other words, the 2023 Census will produce data on the population size, composition, distribution and characteristics but also housing conditions of every ward and locality in Nigeria thereby affording planners with the tool at the local level to plan effectively for the development and improvement of the living standard of the people at the grassroots” he added.

He said population remains  a critical factor in a nation’s efforts towards achieving sustainable development.

“The people are both the agents and beneficiaries of the development process. Knowledge of the country’s population in terms of size, distribution and socio-economic characteristics is required for planning purposes. This therefore makes the conduct of census an essential governance activity”.

He said “Nigeria has one of the fastest growing populations, with a growth rate of 3.2% and an estimated population of about 216 million.