Provide accurate data of Nigerians not estimate, Dr Edu tasks NPC

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu has challenged the National Population Commission (NPC) to provide the actual data of the Nigerian population instead of the current estimation of over 223 million.

Speaking when the Chairman of the NPC, Hon. Nasir Isa Kwarra paid her a courtesy visit, the Minister stated that the accurate data of Nigerians will assist the present administration deliver on its Renewed Hope Agenda.

She said the correct population data will help the Ministry in planning and implementation of its mandate especially as regards poverty alleviation. 

“The biggest question on the table right now is how many are Nigerians? Today will say over or about 200 million people. Some say about 230 million people while others are saying 250 million people. Those are estimates, and some of those estimates are valid based on the calculations from the last time the census was done.

“But it is time for us to move from estimates to actual data, because it forms the basis of the implementation of the Renewed Hope Agenda. I’m sure that is the mandate that the President has given to the Commission to deliver”, she said.

Speaking on the Ministry’s partnership with the Commission, Dr. Edu said, “We have the chairman and the entire team from the National Population Commission here at the Ministry seeking collaboration with the Ministry. Like we know they are the mother of the data we have in Nigeria, so they house the census data and other critical data important to the delivery of our mandate, and of course which is the Renewed Hope Agenda by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“They are strong partners in the implementation of our mandate. From them we’ll be getting the total number of Nigerians which will help us to plan as we carry out our interventions.

“They will also be giving us specific data on the population of different demographics of the population and persons who are below the poverty line and the dimension of the poverty, so that we can address them in our key interventions.

“What is most important is that they are going to be working with us at the grassroot especially as it concerns implementation, monitoring and evaluation. They have staff on ground in various Wards, Local Governments and communities, and these staff are going to be collaborating with us.

“We’ll be setting up a technical team between the Ministry and the commission that would really flesh out various aspects of this collaboration”.

Reacting, the NPC Chairman assured Nigerians of the commission’s resolve to supply the country’s accurate data from the forthcoming population and housing census.

According to him,the Commission has identified 65 million houses during the trial census exercise conducted across the country. Special populations who are not living in normal steady homes including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), fishermen, herders, those living under the bridges, among others have also been  identified.