By FOLASADE AKPAN

The National Population Commission (NPC) says birth registration coverage in Nigeria stands at 57 per cent, while death registration remains below 20 per cent, leaving millions of vital events undocumented annually.

The Chairman of the commission, Dr Aminu Yusuf, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja at a news conference on the nationwide commencement of digital registration of births and deaths on the VitalReg platform under the Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (e-CRVS) system.

Yusuf said Nigeria records an estimated five million births annually, but a significant proportion of births and deaths were never officially registered, denying millions of citizens legal identity and limiting reliable demographic data for national planning.

He added that “these gaps deprive many Nigerians of legal identity and limit the availability of reliable data needed for effective national planning.”

He described the nationwide rollout of the VitalReg platform as one of the most transformative reforms in Nigeria’s civil registration history, adding that the system had been operational across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory since July 1.

According to him, the platform will modernise birth and death registration by providing faster and efficient services, 24-hour online access, digital certificate issuance, reduced paperwork and improved data validation.

Yusuf added that the platform would also enhance security, strengthen credibility of the national Civil Registration and Vital Statistics database and provide foundational database to support other national data systems.

He said the platform would secure interoperability with institutions across Nigeria’s digital identity ecosystem, thereby strengthening service delivery and supporting Federal Government’s digital transformation agenda.

The chairman said the commission had established 4,011 functional registration centres across the 774 local government areas and was expanding the network to about 8,000 centres nationwide.

“The commission is also strengthening collaboration with key stakeholders to enhance the capacity of registration personnel and guarantee that all vital events are promptly and accurately recorded through the VitalReg platform,” he said.

Yusuf announced a partnership involving the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), UNICEF and Barnfort Technologies Limited to decentralise birth registration and improve access to registration services at the community level.

He also announced a review of fees for specialised administrative services, including record modification, certificate re-issuance, attestation and verification requests, while assuring Nigerians that birth registration and birth notification services would remain highly subsidised.

“Let me assure Nigerians that this review is not intended to create barriers to access. Birth registration and birth notification services remain highly subsidised, in line with the commission’s commitment to achieving universal registration,” he said.

Yusuf said that to guarantee reliability, security and nationwide availability, the platform was being operated under a Public-Private Partnership arrangement with Barnksforte Technologies Ltd, a Nigerian IT solution provider serving as the commission’s technical partner.

He said that this would ensure continuous system availability, cybersecurity protection and technological improvements.

“The success of this historic reform depends on active participation of all stakeholders and every Nigerian.

“I, therefore, call on all stakeholders to continue working with the commission to ensure that all births and deaths are registered promptly.” (NAN)