Nigeria took a step closer on Monday to conducting a new national population and housing census with biometric and digital components. President Bola Tinubu, at a meeting at the Statehouse with officials of the National Population Commission (NPC), said govt. would set up a committee to align the census budget to the government's present financial realities.

He said the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) must be part of the review.0 0He reiterated his commitment to ensuring accurate and reliable figures from the national census to strengthen development planning and improve Nigerians' living conditions through more efficient social security. President Tinubu noted that government incentives, such as the sale and distribution of fertilisers, could be easily improved with more reliable data and demographics. He told the delegation that biometric capturing should be central to the process, with multiple identification features, including facial and voice recognition.

The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, said the census data would be central to future planning and resource distribution. Bagudu noted that the enumeration done by NPC so far has been helpful. In his presentation, NPC chairman Kwarra said the last census took place in 2006, and 19 years later, the figures were no longer relevant in planning, particularly for key sectors that directly impact the population. He said 760,000 tablets had been acquired and stored with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), assuring the commission would engage with development partners to seek support whenever President Tinubu proclaimed the new census.