Commission Targets One Million Child Birth Registration By Year End

As about 70 percent of children in Nigeria not having their birth registered and 1,436,896 million representing 31 percent under age five in Lagos state with no birth certificate, the National Population Commission, NpopC, in the state has targeted to meet one million birth registration before the end of 2019.

Disclosing this during a two-day workshop on the need to scale up birth registration in Lagos state organised by the state National Orientation Agency NOA in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, held in Oyo state, The Deputy Director, Head of Department, Vital Registration, NpopC, Lagos state, Mr Nwannukwu Elias Ikechukwusaid from the National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS 2013) data, 70 percent of children in Nigeria do not have their birth registered.

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Making his presentation during a session on “Promoting Birth Registration in Lagos and Western state of Nigeria,” Mr Ikechukwu said in order to achieve free and universal birth registration, there is need to encourage birth registration across board.

These he said the government need to; formulate and enact laws, policies and standards-dealing with two parallel and competing birth registration systems, improving service delivery, identifying barriers, encouraging innovation and forging community based-approaches.

Ikechukwu said, “when a child is not registered, there is no official record of his or her full names, that means, he or she will not have access to basic services.”

To scale up birth registration in Lagos state, Ikechukwu said there are 122 birth registration centers in the state, adding that the commission plans to create additional 26 centers. “Another six centers will be created in Alimosho due to its large population.”

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The Deputy HOD said, “at intervals, birth registration mop-up, an active form of registration whereby ad hoc registrars are mobilized to go from house to house to canvass birth registration, are embarked upon to register the births that are probably not registered during normal registration. 
“Mop-up has really helped to capture the children living on water in order to boost registration of birth and get wider coverage. The intervention of UNICEF to scale up Birth Registration in Lagos State cannot be overemphasized.”

Ikechukwu added that despite the achievement in Lagos state, NpopC in the state is still confronted with a myriad of challenges like; lack of suitable offices for comptrollers and registrars; touting of birth and death certificate; the unhealthy rivalry between Lagos state council staff and NpopC registrars.

Others are; late registration, ignorance, illiteracy, lack of awareness, analog method of registration, and demand for money from registrars before issuing birth certificate, attitude of NpopC staff, insufficient workforce and resources, few registrars covering very large areas, lack of public awareness on the importance of birth registration and social as well as cultural beliefs that perpetuates non registering of birth and death.

He, however, pleaded with the state government to employ more ad hoc registrars, to enable the commission to cover more areas, especially in hard to reach communities within the state.

Also speaking at the workshop, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF, Sharon Oladiji says about 1,436,896 million children, representing 31 percent of children under age five in Lagos state are not registered at birth according to data from RapidSMS, a global birth registration platform.

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Oladiji said, “birth registration is the first step towards recognizing a child’s inalienable right as a human being, but in Lagos state this is failing to meet their right to an identity, name and nationality.”

In 2017, She said the worst-performing LGAs in Lagos state are Mushin with 16 percent, Apapa with 26 percent, Ajeromi/Ifelodun with 26 percent while in 2018, the worst performing LGAs are Ajeromi/Ifelodun with 34 percent, Lagos mainland with 36 percent and Mushin with 41 percent birth registration.

Oladiji said the consequences of weak birth registration systems are incapacity to generate relevant public health data and national estimates and population planning; poorly functioning civil registration directly affects the exercise of basic human rights.

On his part, Lagos State Director, National Orientation Agency, NOA, Mr. Waheed Ishola, who noted that the media was critical in the scaling up of birth registration, appealed to media practitioners to buy into the programme and help create awareness on the project. 

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