The National Population Commission (NPC) says there are an estimated 206 million people living in Nigeria.
Nasir Kwarra, chairman of the commission, was speaking on Tuesday at a press conference on the commencement of the 11th phase of the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) in Abuja.
Kwarra said the figure was arrived at following projections, adding that the exact population cannot be known without a census.
In 2018, the NPC had announced that the country’s population was 198 million.
At 206 million, it means Nigeria’s population increased by 8 million in two years.
The country’s national census was last conducted in 2006.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in October, approved N10 billion for the conduct of a national census.
Kwarra said: “In the absence of an actual census, we formally do projections and we have all along been doing our projections and we estimate that as of 2020, the estimated population of Nigeria is 206 million”.
“Planning for the census is anchored on the EAD as the basis for estimating both the human and material resources required for the census. In essence, the success of a credible and accurate census depends very much on the quality and reliability of the EAD.”
The NPC has been undertaking the EAD exercise in phases ahead of the conduct of a census.
Kwarra said about 260 local government areas out of the 774 in the country had been fully demarcated.
In October, the NPC marked the commencement of the 10th phase of the EAD exercise. Kwarra said the 11th phase would begin on December 9 and end on January 20, 2021.