Dr Betta Edu, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation has tasked the National Population Commission (NPC) to come up with accurate population data to enable the ministry to plan for humanitarian interventions across Nigeria.
Edu gave the task at a meeting with the leadership of the Commission led by its Chairman, Mr Nasir Kwarra, in Abuja.
According to her, the data will help in planning and implementation of the ministry’s mandate of lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty and humanitarian crises through the renewed hope agenda.
“We have the Chairman and the entire team from the National Population Commission here in the Ministry, seeking collaboration with the Ministry.
“Like we know, they are the mother of the data we have in Nigeria.
“They house the census data and other critical data important to the delivery of our mandate and, of course, which is the renewed hope Agenda by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“They are strong partners in the implementation of our mandate.
“From them, we will be getting the total number of Nigerians which will help us to plan as we carry out our interventions.”
She also underscored the importance of population data to the mandate to deliver the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu-led administration.
Edu said that the Commission remained a critical partner to the success of humanitarian response, especially, in the areas of demography.
“They will also be giving us specific data on the population of different demographics of the population.
“As well as persons who are below the poverty line and the dimensions of the poverty so that we can address them in our key interventions.
“What is most important is that they are going to be working with us at the grassroots, especially as it concerns implementation, monitoring and evaluation.”
She assured the visiting team of her ministry’s readiness to collaborate with the NPC to ensure effective and efficient implementation of poverty alleviation and humanitarian response measures at the grassroot.
“They have staff on ground in the various Wards, Local Governments and communities and these staff are going to be collaborating with us.
“We will be setting up a technical team between the Ministry and the Commission that will really flesh up various aspects of this collaboration.
“Beyond this, we’ll be working with their team on the geospatial digital mapping and statistics across the nation.
“This will help very detailed implementation of the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and, of course, humanitarian issues in the entire country.
“So, for us, they are a very, very viable partner and we would be supporting them all the way through,” Edu said.
In his remarks, Kwarra assured the minister of his unwavering commitment to support the ministry’s efforts to provide humanitarian interventions to vulnerable Nigerians.
He also expressed the Federal Government’s resolve to provide accurate population data against the current estimated 223 million.
The NPC Boss promised to avail the Ministry with data from the forthcoming population and housing census.
He explained that the Commission identified 65 million houses during the trial census exercise conducted across the country.
He also said that the Commission had also identified special populations who were not living in normal steady homes including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), fishermen, herders and those living under the bridges, among others.
According to him, the Commission has already concluded necessary procurement for the forthcoming population and housing census.
Kwarra disclosed that the Commission had demarcated the 774 Local Government Areas across the country and had mapped out residences, offices and water bodies, among others.
Responding to a question from the Minister, Kwarra said:
“Yes, she (Minister) did throw that question and I think it was a guiding question.
“As of now, we don’t have the actual (accurate) number of people that we have; what we have is just an estimate.
“We have done a lot of projections; right from the last census to the current population, we believe we are estimated at 223 million in Nigeria.
“It is an estimate, it is a projection; but to get the actual, we need to conduct a census so that we are able to provide the Nigerian public, Nigerian government, the global community with the actual population of Nigeria, its characteristics distribution and so on and so forth.
“We need Nigerians to support us as we go through the preparatory processes for the conduct of the census.
“Like she mentioned, we also warehouse a lot of geospatial data that we can use; because it is obtained through the use of GIS, GPS and satellite images, it is very correct.
“With the proper coordinates of every building, every facility in this country, even the water bodies that we have, (we can provide) the distribution of population, the household average size and so on and so forth.
“There are things that, once we conclude the census, we can use but the geospatial data is already available.
“We can use it before the conduct of the next census,” Kwarra said.