From Desmond Mgboh, Kano
The United Nations International Children Fund has decried the less than optimal uptake of birth registration in Nigeria.
The Field Office of the Fund in Kano, Rahama Rihood Mohammed Farah, lamented the situation at a media dialogue in the state, insisting that the low uptake has deprived many Nigerian children their basic rights.
He observed that millions of children in thee country, under one year of age, who were either born within the communities or those accessing the formal health system, had missed out on the opportunities of being registered at health facilities.
While quoting the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted in 2021, he disclosed that only 54.6 per cent of the under five children births are registered in Kano State, compared to 57. 3 per cent at the national level.
“In Katsina and Jigawa States, under-five birth registration is as low as 23.6 percent and 67 per cent, in Katsina State” he added.
“The MICS 2021 survey also found that two out of every three mothers and caregivers of children aged below five years, whose births were not registered, did not know how to register their children” he continued.
He noted that Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), insisted that every child has a right to a name and nationality adding that such a child must be registered at birth.
He argued that if the births of eligible children were not registered, the child is deprived the right to a formal identity. “Legally speaking, that child becomes invisible and does not exist” he declared.
Against this background, he said that UNICEF has been supporting the Nigeria government to ensure that the birth of every child is registered.
He stressed the need to address the challenge, saying that inadequate or lack of awareness about the importance of birth registration was a public challenge.
“It is important to communicate the innovative, digital birth registration procedure to motivate caregivers, parents, the general public, and everyone to embrace birth registration,” he stated.