Counting What Matters: Fixing Nigeria’s Population Puzzle with AI Nigeria’s population figures are unreliable—and that’s a national liability. From rural planning to urban investment, every sector suffers. But AI offers a new path: real-time demographic mapping using mobile data, satellite imagery, and machine learning—built for Nigeria’s cultural and infrastructural complexities. Accurate data isn’t just helpful; it’s transformative. It’s no secret: Nigeria’s official population figures are outdated and wildly speculative. The last census was conducted in 2006, and even that was mired in controversy. Since then, demographic assumptions have driven national planning—but without real data, these assumptions are blindfolds. Accurate, localized population figures could revolutionize governance. Imagine being able to estimate the number of school-aged children in a specific village, or how many people need health care in an underserved suburb. Policymakers would better allocate resources, ...