On 29th December 2006, Nigeria’s 2006 census provisional results comprising of National and 37 state figures were submitted to the President and Federal Executive Council by the Chairman and Members of the National Population Commission. Representatives of Development Partners, who had played key roles in the census, particularly the EU and the UNFPA, were in attendance at the submission of the results and the President duly acknowledged their contributions. In line with the provisions of the 1991 Nigerian Constitution, the President was required to lay copies of the results before the National Council of State which shall consider and advise the President whether to accept or reject the report. The Council of State met yesterday Tuesday 9th January 2007 and unanimously accepted the provisional results of the 2006 Census, a significant milestone in a census journey which began more than three years ago. Following this advice to accept the results, the President broadcast to the nation yesterday where he announced that the census results had been accepted. He also officially released the national and state population figures.

According to the figures released, Nigeria’s Population as at March 2006 was 140,033,542 comprising of 71,709,859 males and 68,293,683 females, giving a sex-ratio of 105 and an annual growth rate of 3.2 percent from the last census in 1991.

In his address to the nation, the President stated that Nigeria’s population growth rate of 3.2 percent is a matter of concern to the government and that the country must implement policies to reduce the population growth rate so that the national economy can grow faster and can double every eight to nine years. The President also urged that,

“more focus be given to the promotion of girl-child education and the discouragement of negative and harmful cultural practices like early child marriage”.

With this acceptance of the provisional Census results, the census report will be forwarded to the National Assembly for information and then subsequently published in official gazette of the Government for the public and for use in planning.

Nigeria’s 2006 Census recorded several firsts. It was the first census to canvass information on housing. The first census to carry out a successful Post Enumeration Survey (PES) which will permit the production of LGA and small area fertility and mortality estimates. The first census to use scanning technology (OMR/OCR/ICR) for data capture (which scanned all the forms in a record 9 months). It was also the first successful census handled without much rancour by a civilian administration since 1963.

The UNFPA provided technical and financial support to the National Population Commission for planning and implementation of the Nigerian 2006 Population and Housing Census and its CTA played a critical and acknowledged role in the entire exercise. UNFPA will provide further assistance in the production of Local Government and locality figures as well as in further analysis of the data.