The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has disclosed that over 500,000 children under 5 are still unregistered in Kaduna State.
The UNICEF Child Protection Specialist on Kaduna, Dr. Wilfred Mamah, stated this at a press conference on Electronic Birth Registration organised by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in collaboration with the National Population Commission and supported by UNICEF.
He said Kaduna had only achieved 20 percent registration.
He however lamented that despite the enormous benefits of birth registration, Nigeria’s performance in this area, had not been rosy saying, “It is estimated, for instance that only about 57% of under 5 children’s birth were registered in 2021 (MICS, 2021), leaving a gap of 43%.”
He added, “Kaduna state has not done well in registering children in-spite of the huge opportunities the state has in leveraging on highly organised religious and traditional institutions.
“Challenges militating against increased registration revolves around poor coordination, integration, informational poverty, and onerous registration processes, to mention but a few.
“This year, 2024, Kaduna is still very far away from achieving a modest target of registering 584, 251, under 1 and under 5 children and it is holed that with decentralization, digitalization, and interoperability, which are the most reliable gamechangers in driving massive birth registration in Kaduna and Nigeria as a whole, the state and the country at large will achieve a modest rate of birth registration.”
He said to accelerate the digital birth registration system, UNICEF was supporting a functional overall of birth registration system to ensure an up-to-date national digital birth registration process.
He explained that UNICEF, in collaboration with NPC, had trained over 2, 000 volunteers and provided incentives to ensure that Kaduna State register at least 584,251 under 1 and under 5 children.
In his remarks, the State Director, NOA, Malam Hamisu Mayere called for community mobilisation to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of birth registration in all 23 local government areas of the state.
He then called on parents in the state to take their children under 5 years to the nearest registration centre so they could be registered in any of the 149 registration centres manned by NPC officials free of charge.
Also, the Head of Vital Registration, NPC, Mrs. Amina Daniel, noted that the exercise would last for three months.
For the effective conduct of the exercise, she disclosed that over 2,401 indigenous adhoc staff had been recruited across all the 255 wards in the state.
“They are expected to go from house to house to register eligible children,” she added.
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