The National Population Commission (NPC) on Thursday said the conduct of a comprehensive National Census in 2016 is not feasible due to factors beyond the commission.

Addressing a media forum in Abuja, the Federal Commissioner representing Enugu State on the Board of the Commission, Dr Festus Uzor, said the commission needs more time to prepare for the census as it requires 1.1 million enumerators and over 50,000 supervisors to effectively cover the country.

He said the earliest feasible time for the census will be in 2017.

Dr Uzor, therefore, appealed to Nigerians and the federal government to support the National Population Commission‎ in its effort to conduct a credible population census that will be generally acceptable by all.

The commission had earlier made known its intention to adopt the use of bio-metric data technology for the 2017 population and housing census.

The technology will involve the capturing of facial impression and fingerprints of respondents.

Chairman of the commission, Eze Duruiheoma, said the aim is to eliminate all forms of manipulation and also give the nation accurate, reliable and indisputable demographic data that will drive the country to sustainable development.

According to him, the introduction of bio-metric verification of respondents’ finger prints and faces will eliminate all forms of contentions and allegations of manipulations that followed the previous exercises.

He also announced that the commission would recruit over 5,000 ad-hoc staff, to complement the number of existing staff of the commission during the census enumeration.

After the last census in 2006, the commission surmised the number of Nigerians residing in Nigeria to be about 140 million, which triggered arguments and accusations.

•Photo shows NPC Chairman, Eze Duruiheoma.