The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Aliyu Aziz, has called for intensive birth registrations by all in the country in order to provide legal identity by 2030 in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He said this on Monday at a workshop in Abuja to co-create a roadmap for the digital registration system as part of the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System (CRVS) in Nigeria.

“Birth registration will engender financial inclusion and improvement of welfare.

“Foundational identity is very important for National Planning,” he said.

The NIMC boss, who reiterated the imperative of birth registrations, affirmed the determination of the commission to collaborate with the National Population Commission (NPC) in the actualisation of the legal identification agenda.

Yemi Kale, the Statistician-General of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), who was represented by Abolade Sunarjudeen, lauded the NPC for its effort in transiting the country from manual to digital birth registrations and called for increased awareness and sensitisation on the importance of birth registration in the country.

Usman Baba, the Inspector General of Police, who was represented by ACP Usman Mogaji, described the CRVS as roadmap to the developmental plan initiative.

He decried citizens’ nonchalance to issues of birth registrations, saying it was capable of impeding national development.

According to the United Nations, the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS), is a continuous, permanent, compulsory, and universal recording by registration of the occurrence.

Meanwhile, NIMC says only 57.3 million Nigerians have been registered out of the 200 million population in the country.

Mr Aziz said that a strong national identity system was vital to building a viable economy and nation.