The National Population Commission (NPC) has announced plans to establish 8,000 digital civil registration centres nationwide as part of efforts to make birth and death registration more accessible to Nigerians.
The NPC Chairman, Dr Aminu Yusuf, disclosed this in Abuja during a media conference marking the 2026 Africa Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Day. He said more than 4,000 functional registration centres had already been established across the country’s 774 Local Government Areas.
Yusuf said Nigeria fully transitioned to digital civil registration through the VitalReg platform on July 1. He said the digital system would improve the timely collection of vital statistics and bring registration services closer to communities. According to him, the NPC is working with organisations including NIMC, ALGON, UNICEF and health authorities to integrate birth registration into routine healthcare services.
The Head of Birth and Death Registration at NPC, Mrs Adaku Obodo, said the integration with NIMC would help prevent duplicate identities by linking a child’s registration with the mother’s identity. She added that trained nurses were assisting with birth registration during routine immunisation services.
UNICEF’s Chief of Child Protection in Nigeria, Ms Natalie McCauley, described birth registration as a fundamental right and a child’s first legal recognition by the state. She said a birth certificate provides proof of identity and helps children access healthcare, education, social protection and other essential services.
The NPC said community-based initiatives, including a planned birth-alert system, would further help identify births occurring outside health facilities and ensure more children are captured in the national civil registration system.
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