THE federal government has shifted the population and housing census earlier scheduled for 29 March. The exercise will now hold in May.
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, announced the development on Wednesday at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
Mohammed told State House correspondents that the decision was necessitated by the rescheduling of the gubernatorial election to 18 March.
He also said that the Council approved the sum of N2.8 billion for the National Population Commission (NPC) to procure software to be used for the conduct of the census.
“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,” the Minister said.