NPC laments low registration of births in Ogun

The Ogun State Director of the National Population Commission (NPC), Gbolahan Olude, yesterday lamented low birth registration in the state. Olude, at a stakeholders’ strategic meeting for media campaign on birth registration in Abeokuta yesterday, put the figure at 38 per cent. The Director, who disclosed that the agency had 106 registrars and registration centres […]

The Ogun State Director of the National Population Commission (NPC), Gbolahan Olude, yesterday lamented low birth registration in the state.

Olude, at a stakeholders’ strategic meeting for media campaign on birth registration in Abeokuta yesterday, put the figure at 38 per cent.

The Director, who disclosed that the agency had 106 registrars and registration centres in Ogun State, explained that many parents were yet to understand the importance of registering the birth of their children and obtaining their birth certificates.

He called on the state government to support the agency with ad-hoc staff at the ward level, who he said would assist in collating the names of new babies in wards and forwarding them to the agency for the issuance of their birth certificates.

“In 2013, the birth registration percentage in the state was 35 per cent. But in our record, it is now 38 per cent. This is still low, as far as the full compliance with birth registration is concerned. We hope to record 100 per cent birth registration in the state,” he said.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Babatunde Ipaye, who was represented by Dr Ranti Oladeinde, stressed that registration of births was important to ensure proper planning by the government.