Nigeria may have got its population wrong for two decades, calls for new biometric census

Africa’s biggest economy may have got its population figures wrong for nearly two decades.

The Nigerian senate got into a heated exchange with the National Population Commission (NPC) as lawmakers expressed concerns over the lack of accurate demographic data. Senator Abdul Ningi described it as a “national disgrace” according to Nigeria’s The Guardian, with other elected officials decrying the reliance on foreign-sourced data.

The NPC chairman Nasir Isa Kwarra responded by revealing plans to carry out a biometric census with the support of president Bola Tinubu. The proposed NPC budget for 2025 of 18.2 billion Nigerian Naira ($11.69 million) prioritizes the census along with support for biometric systems. However, Kwarra could not guarantee if the census will be conducted this year, according to Business Day, but that efforts were being made to do so.

“We don’t want to be accusing the riverine people of counting fishes, and the North of counting cows, so if we do census with biometrics, we can be definitely sure that people were actually engaged,” Kwarra was quoted as saying by Business Day, revealing the country’s sprawling and diverse demographics.

The country has also faced problems with insurgencies and violence from the Boko Haram rebel group in the northeast. President Tinubu may have nodded to this with references to the prevailing situation in the country with regards to security.

While it is commonly agreed that Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, with an estimated population of around 218.5 million people, the exact figure is based on estimates by external organizations, such as the World Bank, and extrapolated from an earlier census rather than determined by a more recent survey. Many countries carry out a census (an official survey) every 10 years. Nigeria last conducted a census in 2006; a survey was scheduled for 2023 but was postponed indefinitely during the tenure of former president Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria has set a target to issue at least 180 million digital IDs by December 31, 2026, following the World Bank’s extension of its support for the project. The digital IDs will facilitate government cash transfers to 18.1 million people. So far the West African country has collected biometrics from 104 million residents to issue their digital identity, the NIN, and hopes to reach 148 million enrolled this year.

The new call for Nigeria to collect biometric data for a national census follows a similar call-out from former member of the NPC and governorship aspirant for the State of Ondo Diran Iyantan.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  identity management  |  Nigeria