The National Population Commission (NPC) says it is working towards establishing 8,000 digital birth registration centres across Nigeria to make civil registration services more accessible to citizens.
The NPC Chairman, Dr Aminu Yusuf, disclosed this in Abuja during a media briefing organised to mark the 2026 Africa Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Day.
According to Yusuf, digital civil registration services have already been introduced in about 4,000 of Nigeria’s 8,809 wards, while more than 4,000 functional registration centres are currently operating across the country’s 774 Local Government Areas.
He explained that the expansion was part of efforts to decentralise civil registration and bring birth and death registration services closer to people, particularly those living in communities with limited access to government services.
Yusuf said the nationwide deployment of the VitalReg platform was expected to further improve access to registration services.
He noted that Nigeria officially commenced its fully digital CRVS system through the VitalReg platform on July 1, replacing the former manual registration process.
According to him, the digital system will support the timely collection, production and dissemination of vital statistics needed for effective planning and development.
The NPC chairman said Nigeria records more than five million births annually, but considerable gaps still exist in the registration of births and deaths.
To address the challenge, he said the commission was working with the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), UNICEF and Bankforte Technologies Ltd.
He added that partnerships with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, state governments and health institutions were also being strengthened to incorporate birth registration into routine healthcare services.
The Head of Birth and Death Registration at the NPC, Mrs Adaku Obodo, said collaboration with NIMC was helping to reduce cases of duplicate identity registration.
Obodo explained that when a child is registered, the system generates a unique number that is connected to the mother’s identity before the child’s National Identification Number (NIN) is issued.
She said the arrangement enables the system to identify existing records and prevent the same child from being registered more than once.
According to her, birth registration has also been incorporated into routine immunisation services in government hospitals, where trained nurses support the registration process.
At the community level, she said ward registrars were working with traditional rulers, community leaders and other local structures to identify and document births and deaths.
Obodo disclosed that approximately 4,000 ALGON registrars had been trained to carry out birth registration, with additional efforts underway to extend coverage to underserved areas.
She also revealed that the commission, with UNICEF support, was developing a community birth alert mechanism that would allow community-based structures to notify registrars when births occur outside health facilities.
“This is to ensure that as we progress with digital registration, all aspects are covered, both at the health facility and community level,” she said.
UNICEF Nigeria’s Chief of Child Protection, Ms Natalie McCauley, described birth registration as a fundamental right of every child and an important first step in securing legal recognition.
McCauley said a birth certificate provides evidence of identity and can help children access essential services, including healthcare, education, social protection and child protection.
While acknowledging progress made by Nigeria through the NPC and its partners, she noted that many children, particularly those in remote and underserved communities, still lack legal proof of identity.
She called for sustained investment in the integration, decentralisation and digitalisation of civil registration services so families can access them within their communities.
McCauley reaffirmed UNICEF’s commitment to supporting the Nigerian government and other partners in strengthening birth registration and ensuring that children are not excluded from systems designed to protect and provide services to them.
