The United Nations Children’s Fund has described birth registration as a child’s first and most fundamental right, saying it unlocks access to education, healthcare, social protection and lifelong opportunities.

UNICEF chief of Lagos Field Office Celine Lafoucriere stated this on Tuesday in Lagos at a two-day media dialogue on birth registration.

The workshop, organised in collaboration with the National Population Commission, Lagos, has as its theme ‘Giving Every Child a Legal Identity by Driving Birth Registration in Nigeria’.

Ms Lafoucriere said civil registration provided the legal identity every child needed to be recognised by the state.

“Civil registration is the child’s identity, and it is the foundational right of every child. Without that right, nothing else can happen. A child cannot go to school without an identity,” she said.

She explained that the benefits of birth registration extended far beyond the classroom.

“A registered child can access health services and, as an adult, will be able to vote, own property and inherit wealth. A child cannot access the health system without an identity. And it goes on like this throughout life,” she added.

The UNICEF chief noted that many parents still delayed birth registration because of weak systems that currently allowed unregistered children to access some public services. She added that birth registration was also critical to national planning and social protection.

“We are working with the government of Nigeria to build a credible social register that will be used to deliver benefits to vulnerable families.

“If a child doesn’t have an identity, he or she does not exist on the social register. Unregistered children are missing from government budgets, which affects funding for health, education and welfare programmes. If there are 3.5 million children who are not registered, it means that 3.5 million times whatever the budget is normally for one child is not in the government’s budget,” she said.

Ms Lafoucriere called on journalists to help parents understand the benefits of birth registration and where to access the service, particularly at primary healthcare centres and other community registration points equipped with the necessary devices.

“You can tell a specific child’s story, a specific mother’s story, and tell it to the world, tell it to the parents who are isolated, who are the most vulnerable, who need to understand why it’s important and where they can have their child registered,” she said.

The director of NPC in Lagos, Sherifdeen Kekere-Ekun, said the workshop was important for boosting awareness about the benefits of birth registration and correcting misconceptions surrounding the process.

He said journalists could use news reports, radio jingles, television programmes, features and social media campaigns to educate the public on the importance of birth registration.

(NAN)