Up Scaling Birth Registration In Nigeria

Up Scaling Birth Registration In Nigeria

Statistics by the United Nation Children’s Fund-UNICEF suggest that birth registration in Nigeria is low, as more than fifty per cent of children less than five years of age are unregistered.

Birth registration is an official recording of the birth of a child.

It is part of the civil registration and vital statistics system which tracks a person’s life from birth to death.

It is important to note that every child has the right to legal identity, unfortunately, most children born today do not officially exist, this is because they are not registered and so denied birth certificates which are their first legal proof of existence.

Birth Certificates serve statistical purposes, however a number of factors keep children from being registered.

Most of the unregistered children live in poorer households, often in rural areas with limited access to registration services while others are simply not aware of the exercise.

Unfortunately, without birth certificates, children are invisible to their governments, this means, they may miss out on essential programmes like child protection, health care and education that help secure their fundamental rights and future.

Children without birth certificates are also unable to prove their age as they are vulnerable to violence and all forms of abuse.

In fact, they are at risk of being trafficked and recruited into armed groups, or forced into early marriage or child labour.

It is important to note that statistics by UNICEF point to about one hundred and sixty six million children under five years of age who have never been recorded around the globe with children in Africa having the lowest birth registration rate.

Research equally suggests that West and Central Africa has the lowest birth registration rates in the world, with about forty five per cent of children less than five years of age registered.

In Nigeria, more than fifty per cent of the births of children less than five years of age remain unregistered which account for eleven per cent of unregistered children in West Africa.

Based on the aforementioned report as released by UNICEF, there is no doubt that civil registration and vital statistics-CRVS is therefore very crucial in addressing data concerning birth registration of children around the globe.

Going forward, critical organs of government such as the National Population Commission and the National Identity Management Agency amongst others, need to work together to provide a functional system that allows for the sharing of data that are integrated with other vital services, necessary to encourage the up-scaling of the birth registration in Nigeria.

UNICEF and donor partners on the other hand must support organs of government to create a Roadmap for Digital Universal Birth Registration in Nigeria to ensure she meets her SDG obligation of providing legal identity for all children through birth registration.

Experts are of the opinion that information from civil registration and vital statistics is essential for Nigeria’s planning as it can help the government to make critical decisions about resource allocation and provision of infrastructure among others.

Therefore, Nigerians including the media, community based organizations must sustain the campaign for birth registration to get citizens to understand the need for it because it will improve the data base of the country for effective planning.

Most importantly, as it stands now, the country is planning for a head count exercise that will ascertain the accurate human figure for the nation, it is advisable that the local government councils across the 36 states of the federation in conjunction with their various primary health care units cooperate with the NPC to ensure the number of births over the period of time are recorded.

By Daniel Karlmax, Edited By Grace Namiji