UNICEF, NPC Launch Digital System to Register One Million Children in Kano
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF and National Population Commission, NPC, have launched a digital birth registration system in Kano, with the aim of registering one million children by 2023.
At a two-day stakeholder engagement meeting in Kano, UNICEF’s Kano Chief of Field Office, Rahama Farah, emphasised that birth registration is crucial to ensure lifelong protection for children and for them to exercise their rights.
He highlighted that birth registration helps protect children and their rights from birth and is a prerequisite for exercising all other rights.
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Farah also noted that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have placed birth registration firmly on the international development agenda.
While Nigeria has made progress in birth registration, MICS 2021 showed that about one in four Nigerian children under the age of five are not registered, and only 33% of registered children have a birth certificate.
To address this issue, UNICEF is supporting the Nigerian government through the National Population Commission, NPC, to explore innovative measures and strategies to ensure every child is registered at birth.
The Director of Civil Registration and Statistics, NPC, Matthew Sunday, emphasised the importance of birth registration, highlighting that any child who is not registered is lost, stateless, vulnerable to child trafficking, and could be in conflict with the law.
He called on parents to ensure the registration of their children at birth and urged relevant stakeholders to provide support and cooperation to the exercise.
The Emir of Gaya, Alhaji Aliyu Ibrahim, also spoke on the importance of birth registration, stating that it is the first step towards establishing legal identity and can help solve many national problems.
He expressed his support for the programme and commended UNICEF and NPC for organising the meeting.
