From Fred Itua, Abuja
Adamawa States was top on the list among the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with the lowest birth registration rate.
Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Kwarra, who disclosed this, said Delta State has the highest number of registered children under the age of five years.
According to him, more than 10 percent of deaths are registered in Nigeria. Kwarra said the nationwide birth registration rate for under five children is at 43 percent.
He made the revelation while briefing newsmen at the 2021 Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CR and VS) day in Abuja.
The NPC boss said the commission has 4,011 registration centres spread across the 774 local government areas (LGAs) of the country.
“Death registration is low and it is difficult. Let us try and encourage ourselves. Compared to other developed countries, the gap is high in Africa. We are working with our development partners to improve on coverage.
“We are addressing the issues about low birth and death rates in Nigeria. Adamawa has the lowest birth registration of about 20 percent. Delta State has the highest. Many parents don’t report the births of their children.
“As for when we can cover the entire country, that’s not feasible. We can only do that during the national population census.
“From its humble beginning of manual registration, the commission has carefully navigated initial teething challenges and is at the thick of an effective transformation from manual to wholly digitisation and automation of the CVRS system in Nigeria in an effort to revitalise and upgrade the system in line with the vision of the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics. With the support of World Bank and UNICEF, the commission developed a Five-Year Strategic Action Plan (2018 to 2022).
“The broad objective of the plan is to enhance the framework for actions and guidance for national, states, LGAS and community initiatives aimed at ensuring all vital events are registered. Currently, the commission has 4,011 registration centres spread across the 774 LGAS of the country.”