The National Population Commission (NPC), on Wednesday inaugurated a two-day training for its staff in the local government councils and ALGON focal personnel on the ECRVS birth registration system in Oyo State.

The training on the Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (ECRVS) birth registration system is in collaboration with the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Speaking ‌⁠‍‍⁠⁠‌⁠‍‍‌‌at the opening of the workshop in Ibadan, the State Director, NPC, Ademola Awolola, said that the exercise was aimed at training those to train their colleagues at the various local government councils.

“You have to pay attention to all details that are necessary so that the training session at the local government level can be effective. So that the target and results we are aiming for can be achieved,” he said.

Also, the National Project Coordinator, Birth Registration, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Latifah Aspitah-Isah, said that the partnership showed what could be achieved when government institutions, local government structures, and development partners align around a single, urgent cause.

Ms Aspitah-Isah said that the right of every Nigerian child to be seen, counted, and recognised from the moment they draw their first breath was important.

“Birth registration is not a bureaucratic formality. It is the first legal acknowledgement of a child’s existence. It is the foundation upon which a child’s access to education, healthcare, inheritance, nationality, and protection from exploitation is built.

“A child without a birth certificate is, in the eyes of many systems, a child who does not officially exist, and that is an injustice we must correct. Nigeria continues to face significant gaps in birth registration coverage, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach communities.

“Too many of our children remain undocumented, invisible to the very systems designed to protect and serve them. This is why the work you are about to be trained on is not merely administrative; it is a matter of child rights, national planning, and human dignity,” she said.

Ms Aspitah-Isah reaffirmed ALGON’s commitment to working with the 774 local government areas across the country to ensure that birth registration becomes not an event but a sustained culture.

The Chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Oyo State chapter, Sikiru Sanda, who is also Chairman of the Egbeda Local Government, commended the LGs for sending representatives 

The ALGON chairman said that the essence was to have a fully digitalised birth procedure in the whole country.

“This will help improve development in planning as a nation. Statistics that we had in the past are not accurate because of the absence of a proper database. This will enable all the children in the country to have a national identity,” Mr Sanda said.

The ALGON chairman also urged the residents of the state not to politicise the exercise because the country was in an electioneering period.

He stated, “Our people need to know that this process is for the betterment of our children and not about politics.” 

(NAN)