The National Population Commission (NPC) Friday says it plans to register 14,450 children from zero to five years during a sensitisation and births registration exercise in Nasarawa state.

In collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the exercise would cover 36 communities in six local government areas of the state, according to Priscilla Gondoaluor, Nasarawa state director of NOA.

According to Ms Gondoaluor, the exercise became necessary to curb the negative effect that low childbirth registration has on the development and growth of Nigeria.

Umar Tafida, state director of NPC, said the registration would be a mop-up exercise across six local government areas of the state.

Tafida listed the local government areas to include Nasarawa Eggon, Keana, Awe, Wamba, Kokona and Keffi.

He explained that childbirth registration is used by the government for population projection in between censuses.

Ms Gondoaluor said the campaign was in partnership with NPC and supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

According to her, the campaign became imperative as available records show that about 50 per cent of births in communities in Nasarawa State are not registered.

“We are aware that in some of our communities when women give birth at home they tend to forget to take their children for the registration in the hospitals.

“So, we set out with the support from UNICEF to sensitise the people of Nasarawa Eggon Local Government on the need to get their children registered when they are born. We will also take the sensitisation to five other local government areas,” she said.

Gondoaluor said the agency was engaging with stakeholders including, women leaders of Associations, traditional rulers and religious leader’s to step down the message to their subjects in communities.

She said that officers from NPC would be on the ground for four days in each of the communities to register children aged from zero to five years.

“We are expecting a work plan to be put in place to entrench this programme so that people can see child registration as a responsibility,” she added.