The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
The Assistant Representative, UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Osaretin Adonri, has restated the call for a census in the country, which he said was paramount for population accuracy and for effective planning.
He told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday that Nigeria’s population for now is speculative and projected and not accurate.
He explained that the country was long overdue for a census, adding that it would put to rest the catalogue of speculative population figures about Nigeria.
The official expressed confidence in the capacity of National Population Commission (NPoPC) to conduct an all-inclusive census and called for support for the commission.
He added that every area would be counted in future census “and issues of over counting and under counting will be taken care of with Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) which NPopC has already started.”
Nigeria, Africa’s most populated country, had the last census in 2006.
The UNFPA official noted however that population clock is not a reliable indicator to guarantee accurate population figure of any nation.
He said that population clock all over the world was not used to ascertain accurate number of population but based on speculation.
“Population clock cannot give you accurate population of any country because it is based on projections. Nigeria does not have it because I have not seen it in the population commission. Population clock is only an electronic projection that is functional based on programming.”
(NAN)
