Aminat Gusanu
The Director of the National Population Commission, Alhaji Ismaila Al-Hassan Dogo, announced that Kano State has registered 933,589 child births through the newly introduced digital registration system.
He made this disclosure during a media dialogue on birth registration organized by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Kano.
UNICEF initiated a plan to target approximately one million unregistered children in Kano, aged zero to five, across the 44 local government areas of the state.
Dogo explained, “The aim is to add these registered children to the Kano State population database. This initiative is also being carried out in 21 other states across the country, targeting unregistered children to clear the backlog in registration.”
“When you mention a census, it involves counting people, and when combined with birth registration, it forms the basis for projecting the population figures for the country, local governments, or states. Having a birth certificate is essential for recognizing one’s identity and citizenship.”
UNICEF pointed out that despite the increase in birth registration in Nigeria, it remains below optimal levels, denying Nigerian children the fundamental rights acknowledged by both the UN and the Nigerian government.
To achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16.9, concerted efforts are needed to overcome the existing barriers to universal birth registration in Nigeria.
UNICEF also noted that millions of children under the age of one, whether born within communities or accessing formal healthcare for vaccinations, are missing out on the opportunity to be registered at healthcare facilities.
Rahama Farah, Chief of UNICEF’s Kano field office, emphasized, “Failure to register the births of eligible children deprives them of their right to a formal identity. Legally, such children become invisible and non-existent.”
Birth registration is a significant right that the Nigerian government has committed to providing its children. Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) stipulates that every child has the right to a name and nationality and must be registered at birth with a name officially recognized by the government.
According to the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), only 54.6% of children under five in Kano State have their births registered, compared to 57.3% at the national level.
In Katsina and Jigawa states, birth registration for children under five is as low as 23.6% in Jigawa and 67% in Katsina.
The MICS 2021 survey also revealed that two out of every three mothers and caregivers of children under five, whose births were not registered, did not know how to register their children.
The percentage of children under five with registered births varies from as high as 89% for the wealthiest wealth quintile to as low as 33% for the poorest wealth quintile, according to MICS 2021.
The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Population Prospects 2019, reported that approximately 20,000 children are born daily in Nigeria, with a projected population for children under one year of age in 2023 being 7,465,417, and for children under five, 35,597,131.
To ensure that every child’s birth in Nigeria is registered, UNICEF is actively supporting the government in strengthening birth registration coverage during immunization services at healthcare facilities, capturing children under one year of age immediately after birth, during Maternal and Newborn Child Health Weeks (MNCHWs), and through Supplemental Immunization Activities, utilizing digitalized processes.
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