Only 40% Of Nigerian Births Registered – NPC

The National Population Commission (NPC) has disclosed that only about 40 per cent of births in Nigeria are currently registered, despite the country recording more than five million births annually.

The Commission made this known in Abuja during the commemoration of the 2026 Africa Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Day.

Speaking at the event, NPC chairman, Dr Aminu Yusuf, identified the low registration of births and deaths as a major obstacle to Nigeria’s efforts to develop a comprehensive and dependable national population database.

Yusuf, however, said the Commission was taking steps to address the challenge, including the nationwide deployment of a fully digital Civil Registration and Vital Statistics system on the Vital Rights Platform on July 1, 2026.

According to him, the development marked the transition from manual registration to a technology-driven civil registration system designed to improve the way vital events are captured and managed across the country.

He said the digital platform would facilitate the secure and timely registration of births, deaths, marriages and other vital events, while generating reliable data to support governance, planning and sustainable development.

The NPC chairman explained that the system would strengthen the storage and protection of vital records, minimise duplication through automated verification and unique identifiers, and promote data interoperability among health institutions, identity management agencies, planning authorities and statistical bodies.

He said, “More than five million children are born in Nigeria every year. According to the most recent Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey, only about 40 per cent of births are registered, while death registration coverage remains unacceptably low.

“These statistics underscore the urgent need to accelerate registration coverage through sustainable public awareness, stronger partnerships and increased community participation.”

Yusuf said the Commission was also decentralising registration services to make them more accessible to Nigerians, particularly people in rural and underserved communities.

He disclosed that digital registration services had so far been deployed to about 4,000 of the 8,809 wards nationwide, with plans underway to achieve full coverage across the country.

He further stated that more than 4,000 functional registration centres had been established across the 774 local government areas, while an expansion programme was underway to increase the number to about 8,000 centres nationwide.

According to him, the expansion would minimise the distance, cost and time required to access registration services, while ensuring that geographical limitations did not prevent the registration of children or other vital events.

The NPC chairman also highlighted the Commission’s collaboration with the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), UNICEF and BAMFOR Technologies Limited through a partnership compact signed in January 2025.

He added that the NPC was collaborating with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, state governments and health institutions to incorporate birth registration into routine healthcare services.

This, he said, would enable children to be registered as close as possible to their places of birth, thereby improving registration coverage nationwide.