The National Population Commission, NPC, has rolled out the 2026 digital birth registration and other vital registration services across the country.
The Executive Chairman of the Commission, Aminu Yusuf, who flagged off the 2026 exercise in Abuja, said every Nigerian child deserves a national identity, stressing that no child should be left behind.
Rural residence, poverty and low public awareness remain major challenges that could hinder efforts to achieve universal birth registration across Nigeria.
The situation places Nigeria among countries with relatively low birth registration coverage globally, with the country also performing below the broader West and Central African regional average.
According to UNICEF data, only about 40 to 57 percent of children under the age of five in Nigeria have their births registered.
To improve birth registration coverage, the National Population Commission has rolled out a digital registration platform designed to give families easier access to birth registration services and ensure that more newborn babies are officially registered.
The commission says it will intensify its awareness campaigns to encourage parents to take advantage of the platform and secure a national identity for their children.
Some parents whose newborn babies were registered during the exercise said the birth registration would give their children access to essential national services and facilities.
The theme for the 2026 Africa Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Day is: “New Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Decade, 2026–2036: Consolidating the Achievements of the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems, and Securing the Future of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Africa through Integration, Decentralisation and Digitalisation.”
(Follow AIT News on WhatsApp, AfricaIndependentTV on YouTube, ait_online on Facebook and X (Formerly Twitter), and officialait on TikTok, Instagram and Threads).
(Editor: Ebuwa Omo-Osagie)
