FG picks new May date for national census

The Federal Government said on Wednesday that the population and housing census sheduled to start from March 29 would no longer hold.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who said this at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting, added that the exercise would now hold in May.

The meeting was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.

The minister told State House correspondents that the decision was caused by the rescheduling of the governorship election to March 18.

He also said the council had approved the sum of N2.8bn for the National Population Commission to procure software for the conduct of the census.

He said, “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 N2.8bn.”