By Chioma Obinna & Rotimi Ojomoyela
The National Population Commission (NPC), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have intensified efforts to ensure that every Nigerian child is registered at birth and given a legal identity from the earliest stage of life.
The stakeholders are pushing for stronger integration of birth registration with primary healthcare services, greater decentralisation of registration centres to local communities and seamless interoperability between civil registration and national identity systems.
The renewed push is aimed particularly at newborns and children under one, with stakeholders stressing that timely birth registration can serve as the gateway to a child’s access to healthcare, education, social protection and other essential services.The initiative forms part of efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s civil registration and vital statistics system and close the gap that has left millions of children without proof of legal identity.
At a media dialogue on birth registration for children under one year, UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, Mr. Denis Onoise, said the challenge was not simply about parents failing to register their children, but also about removing barriers that make registration difficult for families.
