Two years after Nigeria’s population was estimated to be 198 million, the National Population Commission has announced population projection of 206 million in 2020.
The Chairman of the NPC, Nasir Kwarra, speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, noted that knowing the exact population of the country would be a difficult task as Nigeria had not held a census in the last 14 years
He said, “In the absence of an actual census, we formally do projections and we have all along been doing our projections and we estimate that as of 2020, the estimated population of Nigeria is 206 million.”
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Kwarra, speaking on the possibility of having a national census, said that President Muhammadu Buhari has the sole right to announce the next census, adding that out of the 774 local government areas in the country, only 260 local government areas have been fully demarcated.
According to him, the 11th phase of the Enumeration Area Demarcation exercise which would begin from December 9, 2020 to January 20, 2021 is not the enumeration of persons living in the country but a preparatory exercise before the census.
“Planning for the census is anchored on the EAD as the basis for estimating both the human and material resources required for the census.
“In essence, the success of a credible and accurate census depends very much on the quality and reliability of the EAD.”
He explained that the NPC would be assisting the Independent National Electoral Commission to create digitized maps of INEC registration areas for the first time as part of the EAD.
The NPC Boss said this collaboration would positively affect future elections.
“It is important to state that the latest technology is being deployed for this EAD exercise, including the use of very high-resolution satellite imageries as the base map, the use of GPS for geo-referencing and the use of GIS for data management.
“Also, personal data assistants (handheld devices/tablets) that include computer software for population estimation are being used for data capture,” he added.