2022 budget: FG earmarks N178bn for population and housing census

The federal government has budgeted N178.09 billion for the national population and housing census in the 2022 budget.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday presented an appropriation bill of N16.39 trillion for the total expenditure of the federal government in 2022 to the national assembly.

Giving the breakdown during a public presentation on Friday, Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget and national planning, pointed out that N178 billion has been appropriated for the national and housing population census in 2022.

Since 2016, Nigeria has not conducted a population census, relying on estimates from Worldometer – an arm of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

In December 2020, the National Population Commission (NPC) announced that an estimated 206 million people are living in Nigeria, an increase of eight million people in two years, against the 198 million in 2018.

Checks by TheCable showed that the amount budgeted for the national census is different from the budget of the NPC — a body responsible for carrying out the census.

In the 2022 budget proposal, the federal government earmarked N191,549,309,345 for the population commission — out of which N8,265,544,131 is for personnel (Salaries), N615,073,951 for overhead and N182,668691,263 for capital expenditure.