The National Population Commission (NPC) has issued birth certificates to newborns to mark the 2026 Africa Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Day.
The Chairman of the Commission, Dr Aminu Yusuf, during the presentation, said the birth certificate under the new digital Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (E-CRVS) system, known as the VitalReg platform, is to enable the children to have legal identity.
The Chairman of the Commission, who made the call during a live birth registration exercise at the Wuse General Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, noted that birth registration is a fundamental right of every child.
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He also said that for a child to have access to many essential government and social services, that child must first be officially recognised by the state.
He disclosed that, “this begins with birth registration. It is just like when you graduate from primary school, you need a certificate that certifies that you have passed through primary school. When you get to secondary school, you have another certificate. When you get to the university, you get another certificate.
“These are legal identities that you need to show. Like today, what we have given them is a legal identity that would guarantee that this child was born on such and such a day, and he has his own certificate.
“This certificate can earn him a scholarship, health services and others. That is why the NPC has been doing manual. Now it is digital. All hospitals must key in, so that every child is being captured, registered and issued a certificate,” he noted.
Dr Yusuf revealed that the theme of this year’s Africa CRVS Day is “New CRVS Decade (2026–2036): Consolidating the Gains of APAI-CRVS and Securing the Future of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Africa through Integration, Decentralisation and Digitalisation.”
He noted that the registration is a seamless exercise that can be carried out by parents and caregivers from the comfort of their homes.
The Commission noted that it has registrants in all communities and local council areas across the country as part of measures to ensure that no child is left behind.
Also speaking, Chief of Child Protection, UNICEF Nigeria, Natalie Ann Macaulay, observed that the Federal Government has done a great job to digitise birth registration and ensure that the country uses innovation to give every child a chance to be registered early.
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