UNICEF Urges FG To Decentralise Birth Registration To LGAs

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged the federal government to decentralise birth registration to the local government level as part of efforts to improve access and ensure that more Nigerian children obtain legal identity.

UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, Denis Onoise, made the call on Tuesday at a Birth Registration Media Dialogue organised for journalists in Lagos.

Onoise said an estimated 24.8 million children under the age of five in Nigeria lacked legal identity due to the country’s low and inadequate birth registration coverage.

He stressed the need for state and local government services to be decentralised to enable children, particularly those in underserved communities, to access birth registration and obtain birth certificates with greater ease.

According to him, legal identity is crucial to maintaining official records, securing a child’s recognition before the law and generating reliable data for the planning, monitoring and evaluation of government programmes.

He added that accurate birth registration data was essential for the effective implementation of social protection, healthcare, education and housing programmes.

Onoise identified limited access to civil registration services, inadequate registration centres, inefficient registration procedures and shortages of financial, human and material resources as some of the major factors hindering birth registration across the country.

He also pointed to the direct and indirect costs involved in registration and obtaining birth certificates as additional obstacles discouraging some families from registering their children.

The UNICEF specialist warned that children without birth registration could face difficulties accessing education, healthcare and other essential services, while also becoming more vulnerable to child labour, trafficking, abuse and exploitation.

To address the situation, Onoise called for reforms to existing laws and regulatory frameworks, the decentralisation of birth registration to local government areas and the digitisation of the registration process.

He further advocated improved interoperability and data sharing among government agencies, the integration of birth registration into primary healthcare services and increased public awareness of the importance and benefits of birth registration.

Also speaking, UNICEF Chief of Lagos Field Office, Celine Lafoucriere, disclosed that about 3.5 million children across Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and Edo states lacked birth certificates and legal identity.

She said, “Right now, across your various states, some babies born even this morning will end this day with no name on any government record. This translates to 3.5 million children with no birth certificate, no legal identity, and no proof on any record that they were ever born across Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and Edo states.”

“A birth certificate is not a piece of paper. It is a child’s ticket into school. It is what allows a doctor to put a name on a patient file. It is how a family proves their child is theirs. Without it, a child cannot vote when they grow up, cannot get a passport or inherit land. They go through life having to prove they exist over and over again.”

Lafoucriere noted that Lagos State, in partnership with the National Population Commission (NPC), was among the states that had introduced birth registration for children under one year, with certificates issued under the initiative now linked to a National Identification Number.

The NPC, she said, had previously relied largely on a manual registration system before progressively introducing digital processes to modernise birth registration.

NPC official, Sherifdeen, said the commission had now transitioned to full digitisation, describing the development as a significant step towards improving birth registration and strengthening Nigeria’s civil registration system.

He underscored the importance of birth registration to national development, noting that accurate and comprehensive birth records were necessary for effective government planning and the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes.