….Lagos, FCT Top states, Jigawa, Sokoto lowest with Birth Registration
Birth registration in Nigeria increases by 57% in 2021, up from 47% in 2016, this is according to the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) report.
The 2021 MICS indicates that over 40 percent of children are still unregistered in the country.
Birth registration is the process of recording a child’s birth. It is a permanent and official record of a child’s existence and provides legal recognition of that child’s identity.
Speaking about the survey at a media dialogue on MICS 6 in Port Harcourt, organized by the Child Rights Information Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture in collaboration with UNICEF on Tuesday, Chief of Monitoring for Result, UNICEF, Claes Johanson explained that despite the improvements by 10% increase in several birth registration between 2016-2021, there is still an existing gap to be filled.
Johanson said the improvement is on track to reach 80% in the next 10 years until SDG 2030. “But if we have some acceleration that seems to be within reach, and that is one of UNICEF’s main priorities to support the National Population commission and the government to reach universal birth registration.
He said Lagos state recorded the highest number of birth registration with 94 percent, closely followed by the FCT with 87 percent. States with the lowest registration are Jigawa with 23.6 percent and Sokoto with 22.5 percent.
The survey shows that three percent of children under the age of five had their births registered, but do not have birth certificates. It also indicates 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 births.
It shows that percentage of children under age of five whose births are registered ranges from as high as 89 percent for the richest wealth quintile to as low as 33 percent for the poorest wealth quintile.
About MICS Survey
The MICS Survey is a household survey developed by UNICEF to assist countries in filling data gaps for monitoring human development indicators in general and the situation of children and women, in particular. It has evolved over the years to respond to changing data needs, expanding from 28 indicators in the first round in 1999 to 200 in its current sixth.
The National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) implemented MICS which provides data on child mortality, health, nutrition, education, child and social protection, women’s healthcare and empowerment, water, sanitation, and hygiene.
The MICS was launched on August 16 alongside the National Immunisation Coverage Survey (NICS) by Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who was represented by the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
Communication Specialist, UNICEF Geoffrey Njoku describes how UNICEF is working with national media across the country to take a deeper look into the released data, on what can be drilled out and what to be focused on.
He said, “How can we make the data come alive in terms of being used for policies, government, and international partners?
“How can we begin to activate the data that was released, how they can begin to say there are gaps here and we need to fill those gaps? Where we are not doing well, how we can do better, what is responsible for that”, he said.
