Federal Govt To Launch Electronic Civil Registration Vital Statistics System

Federal government will officially launch the electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System (e-CRVS) for data capturing, collation, processing, dissemination and timely access to vital statistics in the country.

The event, which is slated for November 8, 2023 at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja at 10.00 am, is organised by the National Population Commission (NPC) in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Barnksforte Technologies Limited.

 It will also feature the launch of the National Geospatial Data Repository and the inauguration of the National Coordination Committee on CRVS, while president Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be the chief launcher.

At a media briefing in Abuja yesterday, the commission’s chairman, Nasir Isa Kwarra,  said that the aim of the event is to emphasise the commitment of the current government and leadership to strengthen civil registration data capturing, collation, processing, dissemination, and timely access to vital statistics in the country.

He said, “It is to accelerate the improved civil registration and vital statistics systems in Nigeria over a period of ten years, from 2023 to 2030 in a bid to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG):16.9.2 -legal identity for all, including birth registration.

“During the Sixth Session of the Conference of African Ministers responsible for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CVRS) held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa from 24 to 27 October 2022, African Ministers made several resolutions and encouraged all countries in the continent to automate the CRVS process and ensure the implementation of the United Nations Legal Identity Agenda. Member States were further encouraged to develop an electronic technology-driven system to boost data generation and civil statistics.

“As part of Nigeria’s way of complying with the resolutions of the African Ministers and scaling up the automated process in Nigeria, the National Population Commission in collaboration with UNICEF developed the e-CRVS Operational Readiness Assessment Report showing the potential of digital technologies in providing transformative improvements in CRVS and on integrating data from multiple systems to securely store data at scale, in a cost-effective way in Nigeria.

“The report provided a holistic approach to the future state vision for digitized CRVS, the rollout of a decentralized digital birth registration system as part of CRVS, and identified areas to strengthen the automation of the system. Recommendations that will significantly increase the likelihood of reaching a universal digitalized birth registration system in Nigeria were in place.

“The report ushered in the bold step taken by the Commission for a transformative innovation of the CRVS (Vital Reg) system by developing a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement between the Commission and Barnksforte Technologies Limited – a reputable, and innovative local ICT solution provider with a track record of success in ICT solution provision with government agencies.

“The PPP arrangement is to promote the Vital Reg System as a completely electronic system that digitalizes all civil registrations such as birth registration, stillbirth registration, birth attestation, adoption, marriage notification, divorce notification, migration and death. The system provides a digital certificate in all cases, an accessible verification platform to registered organizations, and a central management system (dashboard) that depicts and analyses collated civil registrations into vital statistics for proper decision-making,” he said.