Every Nigerian child must be registered — UNICEF
By Chioma Obinna & Rotimi Ojomoyela
No fewer than 3.5 million children under one year across the six South-West states and Edo State have no birth registration, leaving them without legal identity and effectively “invisible” in government records, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has warned.
UNICEF said the huge gap in birth registration could have serious consequences for the affected children, including difficulties accessing education, healthcare and social protection, as well as proving their age and nationality later in life.
Chief, UNICEF Lagos Field Office, Celine Lafoucriere, who disclosed this at a two-day media dialogue on birth registration of children under one year, organised by the Lagos State Office of the National Population Commission, NPC, in collaboration with UNICEF, said every child had a fundamental right to legal identity.
“Every single child in Nigeria should be registered. This is the foundational first right of a child. Every single Nigerian child needs to be registered in Nigeria,” she said.
Lafoucriere said the estimated 3.5 million unregistered children across the region represented more than a statistics gap, warning that children not captured in the civil register could also be left out when government plans and funds social programmes.
She said: “If 3.5 million children are still not registered, they will go unnoticed and there will be no government funding to support them simply because they are invisible.”
The UNICEF official explained that birth registration was not merely about obtaining a certificate but about formally establishing a child’s existence before the law.
According to her, an unregistered child could encounter difficulties accessing basic services and exercising rights throughout life.
“They do not exist for access to basic social services like education, like health. But they will also continue not to exist as they reach adult age when it is time for them to vote, to participate in political life, but also when they will be in a position to inherit their parents’ wealth.
“As they are not registered, they are invisible,” she said.
Lafoucriere identified inadequate awareness, geographical isolation, limited access to registration points and gaps in the digital registration system among factors responsible for the persistent registration deficit.
She said many parents were unaware that birth registration was free or that registration could be completed at health facilities and community-level registration points.
“Some parents are very willing to do so but it remains difficult in some geographical contexts,” she said.
According to her, UNICEF is supporting government efforts to digitalise birth registration and take the service closer to families, particularly those in underserved communities.
She urged the media to intensify public enlightenment and tell the stories of children and families affected by the registration gap.
The UNICEF official also stressed that accurate civil registration was essential to the development of an effective social protection system.
She explained that government could only adequately plan and allocate resources when it knew how many children required services.
“If we are working, and the government is working on building a social protection system, having a civil register is very important. But in that civil register, no child that is not registered at birth will exist,” she said.
Lafoucriere, however, noted that progress had been made, particularly with efforts to link birth registration to the National Identification Number, NIN, saying the development would strengthen children’s legal identity from birth.
In his welcome address, Lagos State Director of the National Population Commission, Abiola Kekere-Ekun, urged the media to move beyond reporting statistics and government activities and take the birth registration message directly to parents and caregivers.
He said reliable birth registration data was crucial for effective governance because it enabled government to determine the number and distribution of children and plan adequately for education, healthcare, social protection and other services.
Also speaking, UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, Denis Onoise, said about 24.8 million children under five had been registered across Nigeria.
He described birth registration as a critical component of children’s rights because it provides legal recognition of a child’s existence.
Onoise warned that children without birth certificates or recognised documentation could face serious difficulties proving their identity or age and accessing certain services later in life.
He called for stronger public awareness and improved access to registration services, urging parents and caregivers to register children as early as possible.
UNICEF Communication Officer, Blessing Ejiofor, said the media dialogue was aimed at strengthening journalists’ capacity to report effectively on birth registration and support advocacy for increased registration within the first year of life.
She said universal birth registration would require sustained media advocacy, stronger coordination among relevant institutions, improved accessibility of registration services and accountability by authorities.
The two-day dialogue brought together journalists from Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and Edo states, as well as representatives of government agencies, UNICEF, health workers and other stakeholders.
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