National Population Commission, NPC, said it registered over 36,000 births in Kano State in nine months of deploying its electronic birth registration system.
The State Director of NPC, Balarabe Kabir made this known during a two-day State Refresher Training of Trainers in Kano.
Kabir said the training was organised by NPC in collaboration with the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, and the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, with support from the government of The Netherlands through the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF.
The director said the figure reflects only part of the total number of children captured so far.
He said about 27,000 children under five years and over 40,000 above five years, who were previously unregistered, had also been documented.
He explained that the training brought together ALGON focal persons and District Civil Registrars from the 44 local government areas to strengthen their capacity on the use of the Vital Registration application for electronic civil registration.
Kabir added that the commission would conduct step-down training across the 44 local government areas to reach ward registrars in the 484 wards.
He, however, identified the challenges affecting implementation to include system downtime, login issues, delay in National Identification Number, NIN, validation and inadequate support for field registrars, especially in hard-to-reach areas.
The director said the commission engaged the Kano State government to address the challenges and to scale up the exercise.
Kabir stressed that birth registration remains the fundamental right of every child and is critical in planning, security and access to social services.
He called on stakeholders, including traditional institutions and corporate organisations, to support the commission’s efforts to ensure that every child is registered.
Speaking to newsmen on the sideline of the training, a participant, Aisha Umar said the exercise had enhanced her knowledge and capacity to effectively carry out birth registration at the grassroots.
She noted that the training exposed her to modern techniques and digital tools aimed at improving the efficiency and accuracy of the registration process.
Another participant, Hadiza Sani said the knowledge gained would help address the challenges associated with low birth registration in rural communities.
She lauded the organisers for the comprehensive nature of the sessions, adding that the step-down training would strengthen awareness and compliance among residents.(NAN)
