FG Budgets N12.78bn for Enumeration as Census Uncertainty Persists
The Federal Government has earmarked N12.78bn for the National Population Commission (NPC) in the proposed 2026 budget, signalling continued investment in census-related infrastructure and preparatory activities nearly two decades after Nigeria’s last population count.
Details of the allocation are contained in the 2026 Appropriation Bill released on Thursday by the Budget Office of the Federation. President Bola Tinubu had presented the overall N58.18tn spending proposal to a joint sitting of the National Assembly on December 19, 2025.
A breakdown of the estimates shows that the bulk of the NPC’s allocation will go toward physical infrastructure, with N8.4bn set aside for the construction of permanent office buildings across the country.
Another N2.8bn is designated for the procurement of official vehicles for federal commissioners, while N770m is allocated to the ongoing National Population and Housing Census project.
Smaller provisions cover a wide range of technical and administrative activities.
The development of the National Population Data Bank, the Nigerian Population Database Management System, and the hosting of population geo-portals and web platforms are to receive N54.6m.
Preparatory technical work, including the Enumeration Area Demarcation concept manual and a second pretest, will cost N1.89m and N17.5m respectively.
The budget also includes funding for capacity building and engagement, such as N14m for staff training in data collection and interviewing techniques, N7m for census activities in schools, and N7m for stakeholder conferences on the 2018 census instruments. Census publicity and advocacy campaigns across print and electronic media are allocated N173.11m.
Other line items include N28m each for monitoring and evaluation as well as research, documentation, and archiving, covering studies on special population groups such as herdsmen, fishermen, homeless persons, and migrant farmers.
Inter-censal population activities, including projections, surveys, and demographic health data, are budgeted at N12.39m.
Further allocations address cartographic materials, migration statistics, expansion of birth and death registration centres, amendment of the NPC Act, and the prosecution of objections arising from the 2006 census results.
The commission also plans to fund specialised demographic studies, an e-library, annual population lectures, and commemorative events such as World Population Day.
Nigeria last conducted a national census in November 2006, when the population was recorded at 140,431,790.
Since then, repeated attempts to organise a new count have stalled. Under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the exercise faced setbacks linked to inadequate funding, widespread insecurity, and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the NPC introduced digital mapping and biometric tools to improve credibility, scheduled exercises were postponed multiple times.
Plans for a 2023 census were ultimately abandoned due to financial pressures and the transition to a new government, leaving much of the preparatory work unfinished.
Efforts to revive the process under President Tinubu have also encountered obstacles, including the absence of a clear timetable and unresolved questions around methodology and the enumeration of mobile and displaced populations.
The President publicly criticised the delays during a meeting with NPC officials on February 24, 2025, stating, “This stop-and-go activity on the census cannot work with me. So we’d better have a definite path.”
In March, reports indicated that a proposed N942bn census budget submitted by then NPC Chairman Nasir Kwarra was rejected by the President, who called for substantial cost reductions and reportedly suggested the use of National Youth Service Corps members to support the exercise. A high-level committee inaugurated in April to review the plans has yet to submit its interim report.
Meanwhile, the newly appointed NPC Chairman, Aminu Yusuf, has assured Nigerians that the commission is committed to delivering a modern, credible, and technology-driven census capable of providing a reliable foundation for national development planning.
