Rhoda Egbe, a 37-year-old mother of five, was spotted frantically at the Federal Medical Centre National Population Commission (NPC) registration centre in Markurdi to ensure her 4-month-old baby gets verified and registered.
Mrs Egbe’s parents did not register her at birth because they did not understand its importance, and there was no certification to show her exact birthday. She, however, turned up for the mass birth registration and certificate drive, using the digitalised application in Markurdi.
As a petty trader, her goal is for all of her kids to attend school. “When they want to go to school, you need to show the birth certificate to register them in school. I have not encountered any difficulties in registering the birth of my children; all of them were duly registered immediately after birth,” the mother stated.
Like Mrs. Egbe, very few women are aware that Nigerian birth registration is going digital, and that registering a birth easily and promptly after delivery results in the creation of a National Identification Number (NIN), which is required for Nigerian higher education and provides access to a variety of additional benefits.
The Chief of UNICEF Field Office for South West Nigeria, Celine Lafoucriere, speaking in Lagos at the opening of a 2-day media dialogue to drive e-birth registration in the Southwest of Nigeria, expressed UNICEF’s strong commitment to supporting the federal and state governments to drive e-birth registration throughout Nigeria so that no child is left behind.
She said, “E-birth registration is a formidable and innovative opportunity and a game changer. It helps to have a faster, more reliable, and more efficient birth registration process. It also does away with the issues of distances, geographical distances that often prevent parents from registering their children.
“In addition, both birth registrations present a fantastic chance for Nigeria to establish a dependable civil registration system that produces the data required for efficient planning and the execution of policies that have a positive influence on the lives of all Nigerian children.
“It is to ensure that every child in Nigeria is given the right to a legal identity. A registered child has acknowledged rights to protection and also to healthcare, education, and other critical services. It is very important; without child registration, those children remain invisible to our governments, making it, of course, a very big challenge to plan adequately for the children’s rights.”
In his presentation, the UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, Denis Onoise, disclosed that e-birth registration makes it easier for parents to register their children as soon as they are born, as it’s an innovative approach that will make the birth registration process more accessible and efficient.
According to Mr Onoise, the e-birth registration certificate will automatically generate and secure a National Identification Number (NIN) for such a child. The NIN is useful during school enrolment or visa or international passport applications.
“Accurate and timely data from birth registrations also allows us to monitor the progress that we are collectively making across several sustainable development goals,” he added.
Professor Oladele Olatunya, a consultant paediatrician at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital in Ado Ekiti, stated that e-birth registration benefits the child in many ways in addition to improving national statistics.
According to him, it can be difficult to determine a child’s exact age without a birth certificate, which makes it crucial to make sure they follow the proper vaccine schedule for their age and to use accurate growth standards to gauge their development and nutritional health.
As children grow older, a birth certificate can provide important documentation in protecting against child labour, trafficking, and sexual exploitation, all of which are associated with poor child health and well-being outcomes.
Moreover, Executive Secretary of Oyo State Primary Healthcare Board, Dr Muideen Olatunji, said parents want their children to be well taken care of by the government, and as such, if the number of children that were born were not captured accurately, that wouldn’t be possible.
“Therefore, we will be able to predict and plan very well if we have a comprehensive database —what is our population structure, what is the pattern? So this is going to go beyond health on its own,” said Dr. Olatunji.
Dr Zainab Atiri, the head of the vital registration department at the National Population Commission in Oyo State, stated that mothers can have e-birth registration in all offices of the National Population Commission across the state as well as primary health facilities across the country.
“For example, in Oyo State, we have at least 3 centres in every local government for birth registration, including outlets at the primary health centres and catchment areas.
“E-registration will involve not only our health centres, but we will be going to schools and religious places, and we also have informants. So that when that child is born and we have information, we then visit to ask about getting the baby registered.”
However, Dr. Atiri advised mothers not to rely on others to help them register their baby’s birth at approved NPC catchment sites. She also added that e-registration will stop birth certificate fraud.
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