Does Your Child Exist Legally in Nigeria?

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[media-credit id=1 align=”aligncenter” width=”640″][/media-credit]According to the National Population Commission (NPC), 43 percent of children ages 5 and below do not exist legally in Nigeria because there is no record of them. This was revealed at the Orientation Workshop on Birth Registration Messaging, which held in Kaduna and was sponsored by the United Nations International Children Education Fund. The keynote address was delivered by the Chairman of the NPC, Mr. Eze Duruiheoma, and according to him:

“In Nigeria, according to the 2013 Demographic and Health Survey, birth registration of children under five years, is 57 per cent while the remaining 43 per cent remains unregistered, and in legal terms, do not exist,”

There is a reason for this and he said it was because a large number of deliveries in Nigeria took place at home. Many women still prefer to have their babies out of the hospital, either at their homes or with local midwives and did not bother to either take their new babies to hospitals thereafter or to register them.

He added that women with higher levels of educational attainment were more likely to deliver in a health facility than women with lower or no education.

If you’re reading this and you have not yet registered your child, please head to the nearest Health Center and find out how you can get your child registered; make sure you get your birth certificate.

 

*News source: Punch newspaper