The Nigerian government has announced the postponement of the exercise of 2023 population and housing census which was earlier scheduled for March 29 to May 2023.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has made the announcement during his brief with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to the minister, the new development to shift the census was inevitable due to the postponement of the gubernatorial and State Assembly elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from March 11 to 18.
He further disclosed that the council has approved N2.8 billion for the National Population Commission (NPC) which is meant to procure some software to be used for the conduct of the census.
“There was a memo presented by the National Population Commission, seeking some software to allow them to conduct the census in May this year. I believe because of the rescheduling of the elections, they cannot commence the census as scheduled.
“They sought council’s approval for a contract to procure software for the census at the sum of N2.8 billion,” he said
