The Nigeria Population Commission registered 424,302 births in Gombe State between January and November.

Of those registered 187,283 or 44.13 per cent were girls while 237,019 or 55.86 per cent were boys.

Head, NPC’s Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Gombe State, Mr Adedeji Adeniyi, gave the statistics on Friday in Gombe.

He said the registrations, done in the more than 100 registration centres in the state, covered children between 0 year and 17 years.

He said 76,900 of those registered were children below the age of one year, adding that 33,760 of them were girls while 43,140 boys.

Those between one year old and four years old numbered 285,010, he said, adding that 125,230 of them were girls, while 159,780 were boys.

Those between four years and 17 years of age numbered 62,392 children. The girls were 28,293 in number while the boys numbered 34,099.

Mr Adeniyi said the NPC had stepped up measures and engaged in partnerships with critical stakeholders in the state to encourage birth registration.

He said that it had migrated from analogue mode of birth registration to the digital platform in partnership with UNICEF.

He added that the shift from analogue to electronic mode had made birth registration seamless and called on residents yet to register to do so as data was vital for government’s planning and intervention

“Birth registration and certification is important to give children identity and nationality as well as access social amenities,’’ Mr Adeniyi stressed.

He decried the poor registration of deaths in the state, however.

“Residents of Gombe do not register the death of their loved ones; it is only when they want to collect certain benefits that require such a certificate, that they show up for such registration.

“I call on residents to register the deaths of their relatives as that will help the government to have proper plan procedures and to make positive decisions on happenings in the environment. Registering deaths gives an idea of prevailing causes of death and such statistics are vital for planning also.’’ he said.

(NAN)