The National Population Commission (NPC) announced on Friday that N200 billion had been spent in preparation for the census during the last eight years.
Isiaka Yahaya, the NPC's Director of Public Affairs, stated that the suggestion that the money was spent in the previous few years was incorrect, as the commission has been planning for the census since 2014.
He revealed this at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.
According to the news report, Nigeria's census, which should have been done in 2016 according to United Nations criteria, has been delayed for a number of reasons since it was last held in 2006.
"Yes, it is true that N200bn has been spent on preparations for the 2023 Census so far. However, this fund was not expended in the last few weeks, months or years but rather since 2014 when preparations for the 2023 Census actually began.
"Indeed, part of the N200 billion was expended before the coming of the present commission, which was inaugurated twice between 2018 and 2020 and even before the inception of the Buhari Administration,†he said.
Yahaya stated that the large cash was spent on various preparatory processes to guarantee that the exercise produces genuine and acceptable data.
He noted that the country's main expenditure was the division of the country into enumeration areas for easier clustering, which gave the country statistics on the number of houses in the country.