The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made the announcement on Wednesday at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
The Nigerian government has announced the rescheduling of the population and housing census from March 29 to May over the Saturday March 18 governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made the announcement on Wednesday at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
The information minister told the State House correspondents that the decision was necessitated by the rescheduling of the governorship and State House of Assembly elections from March 11 to March 18.
According to the minister, the FEC also approved the sum of N2.8billion for the National Population Commission (NPC) to procure software to be used for the conduct of the census.
The minister was quoted as saying that “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.”
Recall that the Nigerian government had said that over $1.88 billion (N869 billion) was needed to conduct the exercise.
The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba, while speaking at a high-level partner engagement in Abuja, reportedly said that the government provided 46 percent of the budget for the census, adding that there is still an outstanding of N327.2 billion needed for the exercise.