The federal government has announced a new date for the commencement of the population and housing census.
The exercise earlier scheduled for March 29 will now hold in the month of May.
The decision was arrived at during the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, the decision was necessitated by the rescheduling of the gubernatorial election to March 18 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He also disclosed that the council approved the sum of N2.8 billion for the National Population Commission (NPC) to procure 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,” the minister said.
“They sought Council’s approval for a contract to procure software for the census at the sum of N2.8 billion.”
Last year, the federal government announced that it would conduct the census in April 2023 after the elections.
