Nigeria ready to conduct census after delay of five years

"On our part we are ready. We can start conducting census from June 2021 to early 2022."

After being delayed for five consecutive years the National Population Commission (NPC) is all set to operate a census from the mid-year 2021 to early 2022, according to a report by Premium Times.

As reportedly said by Nasir Kwarra in a press conference titled; 'Accelerating Nigeria's Demographic Dividend: Process and Progress so far', the NPC is prepared to conduct a nationwide census from June onwards.

"On our part we are ready. We can start conducting census from June 2021 to early 2022", Kwarra said.

He also acknowledged the delay of the census from five years and NPC is waiting for the government's directive since the last national census was operated in 2006. He said, "the issue of a census is at the front burner. We know that on our part we have already been delayed for about 5 years, but we are doing our best to speak with the government so that they can make a proclamation".

He reportedly mentioned that the commission has started exercising Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) in the practice for the possible census.

"We have been conducting enumeration area demarcation in the country; we've covered 460 local governments. Right now we're undertaking the exercise in 96 local governments throughout the country and by the end of June, we are hoping to finish the 774 local governments," he added.

EAD in population census is a preparatory exercise for counting of the actual census. It is the approach of outlining the area of the country into demographic and small geographical units named as enumeration areas.