The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in partnership with the Nigeria Population Commission (NPC) said it targeted to register 9,362,399 under five Nigerian children digitally in 2024.
Dennis Onoise, UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, disclosed this recently at a two-day Media Dialogue for E-birth registration in South West, including Edo State in Lagos State organized in collaboration with Lagos State Government.
Onoise, said out of the 9,362,399 children under five children, 4,626,417 would be under one.
He noted that available statistics revealed that 78.90 per cent of people in the rural areas registered their children during birth than those in the urban areas with 44.8 per cent.
He said to achieve the objectives of e-birth registration of children in the country, there was a need for UNICEF and NPC to partner with primary health centres.
He opined that the integration of e- birth registration with the National Identification Number (NIN) would go a long way in providing adequate data in the country.
While adding that there are 4,000 registration centres across the 774 local government areas in the country, he posited 2022 population statistics showed Nigeria had an estimated population of 216,783,381.
He said out of the figure 16,705,671 are under five children while 3,554,005 are under one children.
Onoise, further added according to the statistics, of the 164 million unregistered children worldwide more than half representing about 91 million lives in Africa which is 56 per cent of the unregistered under five children globally.
The UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, disclosed that the organization had in 2023 worked in 20 states and would also flag off the programme in Ekiti, Edo, Ondo, Osun, Ogun and Oyo states before the end of July.
“We worked in 20 states in 2023, and we plans to add five other states in 2024. We intends to flag off the e- birth registration in States like Ekiti, Edo, Ondo, Osun, Ogun and Oyo states”,he said.
Earlier, Celine Lafoucriere, the Chief Head of UNICEF field office for South West Nigeria, described media as a crucial partners in support of the agency’s mission to ensure that every child in Nigeria is given the right to legal identity.
“Your (journalists) platforms are critical for raising awareness with us for educating the public and holding stakeholders accountable to taking care of those children, making sure they have a legal identity and access to basic services.
“Without child registration, the children remain invisible to our governments, making it a very big challenge to plan adequately for the children’s rights.
“So, your discussions and the field work will be centered around that transformative potential of E-birth registration. E-birth registration is a formidable opportunity”,she added.
Lafoucriere added that accurate and timely data from birth registrations would allow the agency to monitor the progress that are collectively made across several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
She said the SDGs includes elimination of poverty and hunger to promote quality education and reduce inequities, adding that journalists roles are “crucial and cannot be overstated.”
On his part, Bamidele Sadiku, the National Population Commission (NPC) Director in Lagos State, opined that e-birth registration platform would provide better lives for Nigerians and prevent double birth and death registrations in the country.
He disclosed that the commission was planning to partner with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to link both registrations with NIN.
“From time to time, we receive complaint from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other security agencies on the issue of birth registration,”he stated.
