The National Population Commission NPC has said it is collaborating with stakeholders in the health sector in the digitisation of birth registration in Nigeria.

The Director, Vital Registration, Mathew Sunday, disclosed this to our correspondent yesterdsay. It would be recalled that the United Nations Children’s Fund, on Friday said only 33 per cent of children in Nigeria have birth certificates.

United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF’s Chief of Kano Field Office, Rahama Farah, stated this during a stakeholders’ meeting on birth registration organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the NPC in Kano.

Farah, represented by the Senior Education Specialist, Michael Banda, said, “The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey MICS 2021 shows that about one in every four births of Nigerian children aged under five years are not registered. According to MICS 2021, only 33 per cent of these registered children have a birth certificate.”

Giving updates on the efforts thus far by the NPC in ensuring that children in Nigeria get registered at birth, Sunday said, “We are collaborating with the health sector, especially the Primary Health Care. We are going to have a meeting very soon with all the stakeholders in the health sector. We are going digital.