Jaw-Dropping Census 2023 Budget: Nigeria At It Again?

While Nigerians are yet groaning under the shocking outcome of a highly controversial Presidential and National Assembly elections, based on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC's Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) project that gulped several billions of Naira, another jaw-dropping figure is being touted for the upcoming 2023 national census project.

According to the Minister of State for Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Clem Agba, the federal government is set to spend a whopping N869 billion to conduct the forthcoming 2023 census.

He stated this on Monday at an engagement for the 2023 Population and Housing in Abuja where Nigeria sought support from the private sector and international donors for the census.

The minister said N626bn ($1.36bn) would be spent on pre and during the census exercise while N243bn ($527m) would be spent on post-census. 

He said the government has so far spent N291.5bn ($632m) on the census, making it 46 per cent of the expected total funding.

He stated that N327.2bn is required to complete the census, especially for the usage of digital gadgets with the transmission of the census in real time.

“The UNFPA has been and is currently providing significant technical and financial support to the census program.

“We will be establishing a basket fund that will be managed by UNFPA.

“They are developing a link that will be made available for donors,” he said.

The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, added that the census would be a green census involving the use of digital maps, digital questionnaires, and cloud computing to ensure compliance with the global climate change campaign for the reduction of emissions by 30%.

The United Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Mathias Schmale, stated that achieving a credible census in Nigeria would serve as a foundation for sustainable development.

Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Kwarra, assured donors that the funds would be used judiciously.

Conclusion

While Nigerians appreciate the loftiness of a census project, it should, however, be stated that it cannot be business as usual with projects gulping jaw-dropping amounts out of taxpayers' monies.

It begs the question, as a matter of fact, wondering, for example, the justification for a BVAS machine that cannot capture voters' details electronically and transmit them in real-time, yet BVAS was such a high-capital project.

Just like the case of BVAS's disappointing showing, what is the guarantee that after spending this much on a national census project, the ultimate results will not show gross manipulation of census figures by some geopolitical zones in the country?

The above summarizes the concern of Nigerians over this astronomical census project budget.