Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation is to collaborate with the National Population Commission (NPC) to produce accurate census data in order to actualise the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Tinubu administration.

The minister, Dr Beta Edu, while receiving a delegation from the commission led by its chairman, Hon Nasiru Isa Kwara in her office late Monday said that to effectively carry out her mandate, the ministry needs accurate population data.

She described the NPC as a very important commission to the implementation of the ministry's mandate as President Tinubu is committed to changing the development narrative in the country and wants immediate service delivery to the populace.

This she said could be achieved through the ability to ascertain the extent of deliverables especially to the grassroots.

“You are very important to the work I do. The biggest question now is to know how many Nigerians there are; we only have estimates but it's time to move to actual figures with accurate data which forms the basis of implementation of the president's agenda. We will go all the way to support you on the assignment and we are confident that you will tell Nigerians the actual population of the country. We promise to carry out advocacy for you on this and the work starts now,” she said.

Earlier, the NPC chairman said the ministry has a heavy job to deliver humanitarian interventions and required accurate data for its mandate and that the commission would share documents with the ministry to help solve problems.

He said every household and building in the country had been mapped and the commission was ready for the census.

He said: “Preparations for the census are going on very well. We used heavy technology in Borno State due to the insecurity that made access to certain areas difficult and during the census we will be able to get there. We will get the data that you need, including data on climate change.”