…Leads FCT, Others With 94%
Lagos state has topped the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on the number of children registered at birth with the Civil Authorities, with a total of 94 per cent, according to the just released Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, MICS, 2021 by the National Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF.
Followed closely is the FCT, Abuja, with 87 per cent, while the lowest levels of birth registration are in Jigawa with 23.6 per cent and Sokoto with 22.5 per cent.
Birth registration is the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of births, as provided by regulation by legal requirements. It is also the first step towards recognising a child’s inalienable right as a human being,
However, despite numerous developmental benefits and attention led to more than half of all children under the age of five (57 per cent) have their births registered with civil authorities in 2021, resulting in an increase of 10 per cent from 5 years ago, 40 per cent of Nigerian children still do not have an identity.
The number of many without identity is even higher than the national average. In legal terms, these children do not exist. In 2016, only 47 per cent of Nigerian children were registered.
Giving an overview of the MICS during a media dialogue in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, UNICEF’s Chief of Monitoring for Result (M4R), Mr Claes Johanson, said although there is a 10 per cent increase in the number of birth registration between 2016 and 2021, there is still an existing gap to be filled.
The survey shows that 3 per cent of children under the age of five had their births registered, but do not have birth certificates.
He also explained that the survey showed that 2 out of every 3 mothers and caregivers of children aged below five years whose births were not registered did not know how to register births.
It shows that the percentage of children under the age of five whose births are registered ranges from as high as 89 per cent for the richest wealth quintile to as low as 33 per cent for the poorest wealth quintile.
