The United Nations Children’s Fund says decentralisation, digitisation and interoperability would drive the birth registration of 12.7 million children across the country in 2023.
UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, Dr. Wilfred Mamah, said this at the state-level kick-off operational plan for the 2023 registration exercise for Kaduna and Zamfara States.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the event was organised in Kaduna by the National Population Commission in Collaboration with the National Orientation Agency with support from UNICEF.
Dr. Mamah said that the NPC, in partnership with relevant stakeholders has concluded plans to register and issue birth certificates to 12.7 million children nationwide in 2023.
He explained that decentralisation would ensure that services are taken closer to the people so as to reduce challenges that could arise from travelling long distances to registration offices for birth registration.
He noted that while interoperability can increase communication across important sectors, digitisation has the capacity to scale up registration by eliminating onerous rudimentary processes.
UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Kaduna, Ms. Gerida Birukila, on her part, said in spite of the enormous benefits of birth registration, Nigeria’s performance has not been rosy.
She pointed out that only 57 per cent of children under five years of age were registered in Nigeria in 2021, leaving a gap of 43 per cent.
Birukila said that within the period, Zamfara registered only 17.3 per cent while Kaduna state covered between 37 and 55 per cent.
“Birth registration is an identity issue, and we are still lagging behind with nearly half of the children not registered and, in some states, only about 30 per cent are registered.
“We need to have all our children registered because of the importance of being registered in terms of prevention of child labour, violence against children, child marriage, and many other issues.
“You should be able to say I am a Nigerian, but what really proved you are a Nigerian if you don’t have papers? We are looking at digitisation of record to ensure that every child is registered and is in the national database, that their information can be accessed,” she said.
Birukila said that UNICEF would support the digital registration exercise and work with partners to ensure that every birth is registered, digitised and birth certificates given out
NPC Vital Registration Director, Mr. Makama Taala explained that the birth registration of children under five years in Nigeria in 2021 was 57 per cent while only 33 per cent of certificates were issued.
Taala explained that of the 57 per cent coverage, 60 per cent were in urban areas while 32 per cent were in rural communities, adding that only 10 per cent of deaths were registered.
He said that between 2018 and 2022 a total of 15.9 million children under one year were registered, representing 72 per cent of the 21.9 million targets.
The NPC director noted that for children under five years, a total of 28.7 million were registered, between 2018 and 2022, representing 87 per cent of the 32.6 million targets.
He said NPC would employ state-of-the-art digital registration platforms to register 12.7 million children under five years by the end of 2023.
State Director, NPC, Kaduna State Office, Mrs. Adama Uthman, blamed the gap in birth registration coverage on insufficient registration centres.
She noted that although there are birth registration centres in all the LGAs, more centres need to be created to bring the services closer to the people.
Uthman said that the NPC would embark on a massive sensitisation campaign to create the needed awareness for community members to take advantage of the service to register their children.
“Although some of the children are already over the age of five and so on, it is not too late. We can still register them so that we will have very good coverage,” she assured.
On his part, the State Director, National Orientation Agency, Kaduna Office, Mr. Galadima Soba, blamed the low coverage of birth registration across the country on attitude.
She explained that Nigerians, particularly those at the grassroots sometimes do not recognise the importance and advantage of child registration at birth.
According to him, it is only birth registration that confers identity and legitimacy on every child because it identifies the child, parents, lineage, and where he comes from.
“This is important for the child because at adolescent stage, the child should be able to tell you what or who he is and what he can do for himself and the society at large. Without this identity accessing government facilities and services may be difficult.
“The National Orientation Agency is concerned about this missing link and therefore, we are working in synergy with the National Population Commission to ensure that the target is achieved”.
(NAN)
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