News & Publications

By: Nneka Oduada Eze Esq.

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), in a statement made on Tuesday, 9^th August, 2021 through its Nigerian Representative, Mr. Peter Hawkins, said the African continent have the lowest birth registration rate in the world. It was also stated that only 44 percent of children are registered at birth, while millions of deaths are uncounted for each year.

Mr. Peter Hawkins stated that Nigeria Accounts for 11 percent of unregistered children in West Africa. Furthermore, in his statement, “every child counts and we must ensure that we count every child, so that they can best benefit from important services like health and education. We need to work together to ensure effective coordination to make this happen. Functional systems that allow for the sharing of data across information management databases that are integrated with other vital services are necessary to push the birth registration rate in Nigeria up to make sure that every child is counted.”

In addition, the UNICEF representative stated that the National Population Council had identified information and communication technology assets to support effective civil registration and vital statistics systems. This would address the challenge of birth and death registration in the country, adding that the civil registration and vital statistics system would ensure the highest standards of data protection and confidentiality of personal data to promote birth registration.

While the proposal of UNICEF to address the highlighted challenges of improper documentation of child birth registration in Nigeria is a commendable step to foster accurate documentation, Parents and guardians should key into this by taking practical steps in ensuring the registration of their child at birth. This is commendable, not for the sole purpose of effective recording keeping, but to preserve the uniqueness of the child’s birth. Birth registration is a one-off event that gives every child a unique identity which will give them better access to vital services like health, education, and social protection. The importance of a child’s registration at birth cannot be over emphasized.