The Senate, yesterday, accused the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of consistently working with inaccurate figures due to weak and fragmented data capture systems.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Identity Card and National Population, Senator Victor Umeh, who frowned at the inaccurate population figures being reported by the agency over the years, said that the country could no longer rely on population estimates of about 250 million people.

Umeh stated this in Abuja at a public hearing on a bill seeking to repeal the Births, Deaths, etc. (Compulsory Registration) Act, Cap. B9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and enact the Compulsory Civil Registration Act, 2025, which proposes a fully electronic civil registration system.

He observe that poor civil registration has continued to undermine national planning and governance, stressing that it was time the country stopped working with estimates, saying Nigeria should do proper census so as to have proper registration.

He said: “Nigeria cannot continue to work with estimates. We need a proper census and accurate civil registration. “Both births and deaths must be registered to enable effective national planning.”

Umeh cautioned that failure to register births and deaths would result in exclusion from government planning and interventions, stressing that future allocations to families would depend on national registers.

The politician lamented that poor death registration has allowed deceased persons to remain on government payrolls for years, distorting wage bills and social benefits.