The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called on Nigerians and governments at all levels to fully key into the e-birth registration process for the good and future of the country’s children.
The Chief of UNICEF Field Office for South West Nigeria, Celine Lafoucriere who made the call said the digitised-birth registration is very crucial to building an inclusive society.
Lafoucriere stated this in Lagos at the opening of a 2-day media dialogue to drive e-birth registration in the Southwest of Nigeria.
The Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development organised the dialogue, with the theme,
“Giving Every Child a Legal Identify,” in conjunction with the National Population Commission (NPC) and UNICEF.
Speaking further on the importance of the e-birth registration, UNICEF boss said, “Birth registration is a fundamental right for every child, without that, a child is invisible. With this, children have access to basic services, very importantly, they have access to services such as projection, healthcare, education etc.
She said that UNICEF is strongly committed in Nigeria to support the federal and the state governments to drive birth registration throughout Nigeria, so that no child is left behind.
“E-birth registration is a formidable opportunity and innovative opportunity and it is a game changer. It helps to have a faster, more reliable, more efficient birth registration process. It will also do away with the issues of distances, geographical distances that often prevent parents from registering their children.
“Besides, from both birth registration, it is also a great opportunity to have a reliable civil registration system for Nigeria that generates necessary data to have an effective planning and policy implementation that impacts positively on the lives of all children in Nigeria.
In his presentation, the UNICEF child protection specialist, Denis Onoise disclosed that UNICEF is targeting 9,362,399 under five children and 4,626, 417 under one child for the digitised-birth registration by the end of 2024.
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