With support from the United Nations Children’s Fund, a birth registration programme being implemented by the National Population Commission, has increased the number of children between the ages of zero and 17 years registered in Nigeria by about 29million.
UNICEF’s Country Representative in Nigeria, Mohamed Fall, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday, during a dissemination event on the Impact Evaluation Report of Birth Registration Programme in Nigeria.
Fall said: “According to the evaluation report launched today, for children under one year of age, the programme increased by more than 100 per cent the number of children registered — from 3 million in 2012 to 11 million in 2016.
“Low rates of birth registration is a challenge in Nigeria.
“In 2011, the birth registration rate was 41 percent, which means that three in every five children were not registered. This lack of birth registration negatively affects a child’s ability to access his or her right to health care, education and many other rights.”
Fall noted that it was in this context that the programme was initiated to accelerate birth registration rates – particularly for children under the age of 5, between 2012 and 2016.
He revealed that the programme made significant improvement in strengthening the birth registration system in Nigeria.
“At the level of infrastructure, the numbers of NPopC Registrars/Centres increased to nearly 4,000 in 2016 from about 3,000 in 2012, helping to achieve a harmonized, accessible and efficient birth registration system, which now functions as an integral part of civil registration and vital statistics in Nigeria.
“The programme’s use of ICT tools for birth registration introduced target-driven performance in all of the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria. The LGAs now have specified targets, reports and performance ranking”, he explained.
He listed some key benefits of the programme to include: fully sustained partnership and convergence with health interventions; innovative use of ICT tools and applications; and a strong link with the national CRVS Strategic Plan (2018-22).
Citing the importance of birth registration to the well-being of Nigerians, Fall asked the NPopC, as a primary service provider, to take “greater ownership and a proactive approach” on registration of newborn children and all other children who are still unregistered.
He concluded: “NPopC is advised to prioritize digitization, advocacy and lobbying for more funds to effectively implement the Strategic CRVS Plan (2018-2022).
“Birth registration remains pivotal to child wellbeing in Nigeria.”
