TheCable

The National Population Commission (NPC) has partnered with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to conduct birth registration for 797,209 children in Katsina state.

Speaking on Saturday during the training of ad hoc officials, Ogbodo Adaku, UNICEF focal person, said children in remote areas across the 361 wards in Katsina would be registered.

Adaku said 1,083 ad hoc staff have been recruited from various wards to carry out the registration exercise.

She said the commission is planning to ensure about 12 million Nigerian children have birth certificates and legally recognised in the country.

“This massive birth registration drive is being organised in 23 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),” NAN quoted Adaku as saying.

“We are doing this because we want to register as many as 12 million children in Nigeria that are not visible.

“You and I know that once a child is not registered, by legal implication, that child is not visible, it does not exist.

“NPC having that mandate, we have to do everything to ensure that every child is registered, irrespective of their locality.”

She said the commission is working to generate data of children that can be used by other government agencies, adding that “it is why we are transforming from manual to digital registration”.

“The child has been given an identity, and can comfortably say they are Nigerians, that’s the purpose of this massive registration drive with the support of UNICEF,” she added.

“We are here in Katsina to train the ad hoc registrants. In the past, we were doing manual registration, but the world has gone digital.

“We want to ensure that vital statistics, which is the data generated from civic registration, is disseminated so that the government can use it for good governance and implement policies for economic development.

“In Katsina, the target population of children that we are looking at registering during this birth registration drive is almost 800,000.

“And there are 361 wards in the state, in each ward, we recruited three registrants, making 1,083 registrants across the state to work within their wards.

“We are grassroot orientated organisation, and we work within the community, that’s the only way we can ensure that every child, whether born in the hospital, or at home is registered and given a birth certificate.

“In fact giving a legal identity. That’s the essence of this exercise we embarked on with the support of UNICEF.”

She added that the NPC is working closely with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to mobilise and create awareness about the importance of the exercise at the grassroots level.