…Says birth registration gives children legal identity, access to essential services

The National Population Commission (NPC) has urged parents and caregivers to register their children in the new digital Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (E-CRVS) system, known as the VitalReg platform to enable them to have legal identity.

Chairman of the Commission, Dr Aminu Yusuf who made the call during a live birth registration exercise at the Wise General hospital, Abuja as part of the activities to commemorate the 2026 Africa Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Day emphasized that birth registration is a fundamental right of every child adding that for a child access many essential government and social services, that child must first be officially recognised by the State.

He said, “This begins with birth registration. It is just like when you graduate from primary school, you need a primary school certificate that certifies you 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 will guarantee that this child was born on such and such day, and he has his own certificate”.

“This certificate can earn him a scholarship, can earn him health services and others.  That is why the National Population Commission has been doing manual, whatever. Now it is digital. it is important all hospitals should key in, so that every child is being captured, every child is being registered and issued a certificate”

Yusuf noted 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, Decentralization and Digitalization, adding that the registration is a seamless exercise that can be carried out by parents and caregivers from the comfort of their homes.

He pointed out that the commission also has registrants in all the communities and all the local government 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 digitize birth registration and ensure that the country uses innovation to give every child a chance to be registered early.

Macaulay called on parents and caregivers to ensure that  that their are registered.
“You’re giving them then every opportunity in life, just like you would to make sure that they get food and water and everything else. A birth registration is just as essential”, she added.

Parents whose newborn babies were registered during the exercise, commended the government for making the registration very easy and seamless adding that birth registration would give their children access to essential national services and facilities.