The National Population Commission on Tuesday in Abuja said the national biometric data capture for the 2016 census would gulp N600bn.
The Chairman, NPC, Chief Festus Odimegwu, made the disclosure during the unveiling of the United Nations State of the World Population Report 2012.
According to him, the biometric data capture effort will save the country billions of naira by unifying the similar projects being conducted by various agencies of government.
Odimegwu said, "Nigeria has no data. People can't really tell you precisely what the population is. You hear people say today that we are 170 million. This week, I have heard 160 million; I have heard 156 million. Some people even say we are 200 million.
"So, you have to do demographic data to start with. That is what the commission is geared to provide towards 2016 when we will do a biometric data and that will gulp about N600bn."
He added that the biometric data capture already approved by President Goodluck Jonathan would help in better economic planning for national development.
Odimegwu blamed the inability of the country to have credible population statistics on failed leadership.
He said, "The problem has always been lack of enough credible and imaginative leaders in political governance, particularly in recent times. A deficiency that robs national aspirations of critical mass of great minds at all levels of government.
"A national tragedy that is manifesting in multiple layers of challenges that have left the state of our Nigerian population in pathetic condition of corruption, accelerated unemployment, lack of rule of law, political irresponsibility and impunity."
These, he stressed, had helped in breeding terrorists, kidnappers and prostitutes, with spreading levels of insecurity and poverty as well as diseases and ignorance.
Odimegwu also lambasted the nation's leadership for "consuming more than 80 per cent of the annual national budget with nothing left for capital projects in real terms."
Earlier in his speech, the President, Reproduction and Family Health, Prof. O. A. Ladipo, spoke on the significance of the United Nations Population Fund report, which stressed the importance of family planning as a human right and harbinger of national development.
In her appraisal of the report, the Country Representative, UNFPA, Mrs. Victoria Akyeampong, called for a right-based approach to family planning globally.
