The National Population Commission in Delta State has launched a campaign offering free birth registration for children aged zero to five.
The initiative, announced by NPC Federal Commissioner Mrs. Blessyn Brume-Ataguba during a press conference, aims to improve governance, planning, and service delivery.
This collaborative effort involving NPC, UNICEF, and the office of Nigeria’s First Lady is designed to ensure accurate registration of births, ultimately enhancing governance and service provision.
Brume-Ataguba highlighted the importance of the Civic Registration and Vital Statistics System in effective governance, emphasizing NPC’s role as the custodian of vital records in transforming the CRVS system to be accurate, accessible, and inclusive.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that every birth, death, and significant life event is recorded accurately and promptly. They form the foundation upon which legal identity is established, ” she said
She called development partners and other stakeholders to support the commission in the free birth registration exercise.
“Parents and guardians are urged to cooperate with the commission’s personnel to carry out the exercise.
“We have trained 1,198 ad-hoc staff to carry out the exercise in the 25 local government areas of the state.
”Unless a person is registered, they do not exist in the eyes of the state. Registration allows you to establish and protect identities, citizenship, and property rights,” she noted.
Mr. Patrick Lotobi, State Director of NPC, noted that the earliest effort to establish birth registration in Nigeria dates back to 1863, when Ordinance No.21 was enacted in the Lagos Colony, marking the initial attempt to formalize birth registration in the country.
“However, the first consensus to have a universal system of registration of births and deaths in Nigeria was in 1979.
“The Federal Government, in search of an alternative source of demographic data, promulgated the Birth and Death Compulsory Registration Decree, now Act 39 of 1979,” he said.
Mrs. Tracy Ikolomi, the State Director of the National Orientation Agency, announced that her agency would launch an extensive and intense awareness campaign to educate the public about the vital importance of birth registration, with the goal of sensitizing the community to its significance and benefits.
