President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the data to be generated from the 2023 census would be used to tackle the security challenges bedeviling the country as it will give an overview of the population.

Speaking at the national stakeholders’ summit on the 2023 Population and Housing Census held at the Old Banquet Hall, State House, Abuja, President Buhari stated that the deployment of digital technology in the 2023 National Population and Housing Census will ensure effectiveness and more accuracy in the figures.

The President also said that Nigeria urgently needs a new data set to drive the implementation of the recently launched revised National Policy on Population for Sustainable Development and other government policies.

He said Nigeria could rank third largest in the world by 2050, after China and India, adding that a “reliable, credible, acceptable and successful census’’ will help government in planning purpose for development, especially in bolstering the social security programme that targets more vulnerable Nigerians.

Chairman of the NPC, Mr Nasir Isa Kwarra, thanked the President for the approval for the 2023 Census in April, after the general elections, assuring that the commission will work hard to make it “credible and acceptable’’.

VAN/Dupe Akinyooye