Dr Edu seeks collaboration with NPC for accurate data of Nigeria vulnerables

By Urube Peter, Abuja

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, has called on the National Population Commission NPC on the need to come up with accurate population data that will enable planning and implementations of the Ministry’s mandate.

Dr Edu said this while receiving the management of NPC team led by it chairman Hon Nasir Isa Kwara on a courtesy visit in her office on Monday.

She said, “We are privileged to have the chairman and the entire team from the National Population Commission here at the Ministry to seek collaboration with the Ministry. They are the custodians of the data we have in Nigeria, so they house the census data and other critical data important to the delivery of our mandate, which is the Renewed Hope Agenda by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“They will be strong partners in the implementation of our mandate. From them, we will get the total number of Nigerians, which will help us plan our interventions. They will also provide us with specific data on the population of different demographics, including persons who are below the poverty line and the dimensions of poverty, so that we can address them in our key interventions, Edu said.

“Most importantly, they will work with us at the grassroots, especially concerning implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. They have staff on the ground in various wards, local governments, and communities, and these staff will collaborate with us. We will be setting up a technical team between the Ministry and the Commission to flesh out various aspects of this collaboration.

“Furthermore, we will work with their team on geospatial digital mapping and statistics across the nation. This will help in the detailed implementation of the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and humanitarian issues across the entire country. They are a very viable partner, and we will support them all the way through,” she emphasized.

Earlier, the chairman, National Population Commission, Hon Nasir Isa Kwara, who thanked her for the warm reception as well as appreciate Mr president Tinubu for appointed her over the ministry went ahead to assured Nigerians and international community of the commission determination to provide accurate population data against the estimated data of 223 million currently.

The chairman in a brief interview with Humanitarian ministry Correspondents stressed the need of accurate data to drive in the delivering of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present administration of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu agenda.

Hon Kwara assured the Ministry of accurate data from the forthcoming population and housing census, stating that the Commission has identified 65 million houses during the trial census exercise conducted across the country.

The Commission has identified special populations who are not living in a normal steady homes, including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), fishermen, herders, Agberos who sleep under the bridges and those in refugee camps, among others.

He emphasized the preparedness of the Commission with the necessary requirements for the forthcoming population and housing census, referenced the demarcation of 774 Local Government Areas across the country by the Commission with maps of residential areas, offices, water bodies, among others.

In a quick respond to inquiries about the actual population by Dr Edu, Hon Kwara said, “Yes, to the questioned, I think it was a guiding question. As of now, we don’t have the actual numbers of people. What we do have is estimate. We have done a lot of projections, from the last census to the current population, and we believe we are estimated at 223 million in Nigeria.

He reiterated, “It’s still an estimate; it’s a projection. But to get the actual figure, we need to conduct a census. We aim to provide the Nigerian public, the Nigerian government, and the global community with the actual population of Nigeria, its characteristics, distribution”.

He called on Nigerians to support the commission to go through the preparation processes for the conduct of the forthcoming census, Kwara explained.

He reemphasized, “we are also warehousing a lot of geospatial data that we can use because it is obtained through the use of GIS, GPS, and satellite images. So, it’s very correct. With the proper coordinates of every building, every facility in this country, even the water bodies that we have, the distribution of population, the household average size and the like.

“There are things that we can use once we conclude the census, such as ‘the geospatial data which is already available, and we can use it before the conduct of the next census,” the NPC Chairman reassured.

On the questions regarding hacking the NPC server as the reports alleged, Honourable Kwara in his response dismissed the report, argued that the report was unfounded.

He said, “We have all the measures in place to safeguards hacking that the story was a make up It was not true. There was no any hacking at all, he emphasized.
Our data is well secured.”

“However, we’re still building and fortifying the security around our data. With the approval of the government, we want to build a Cybersecurity Center that will not just wait until you are attacked but will proactively hunt for any eventualities, so our open data will be well protected.”