Population commission partners UNICEF, Plateau govt on birth, death registration

Speaking in Jos at the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) guiding the partnership, Director of the National Population Commission in Plateau State, Mr Simon Gonler said the birth and death registration exercise is necessary to track changes in the country’s population.He said, “This MOU is to collaborate to capture children being born […]

Speaking in Jos at the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) guiding the partnership, Director of the National Population Commission in Plateau State, Mr Simon Gonler said the birth and death registration exercise is necessary to track changes in the country’s population.
He said, “This MOU is to collaborate to capture children being born and people that are dying as these vital statistics are the dynamics of our population. By this collaboration, we shall be grateful if all the health facilities in the state will help us to register the births and deaths across the state. We will make forms available which we will retrieve and issue corresponding certificates.”
Plateau State Commissioner for Health, Dr Fom Dakwak who signed the MOU on behalf of the state government said the government would do its part to enhance virtual registration because of its necessity for planning, expressing hope that the exercise will lead to the issuance of uniform birth certificate to all children.
Dakwak said, “We have situations in which different hospitals issue different birth certificates to children they deliver. We hope that by this collaboration, we will be able to have a standard birth certificate with the same design and same information format for the people of this state and the country.
The United Nations Children’s Fund says birth registration currently covers only 40 percent of children being born in Nigeria.
It is the technical partner to provide knowhow and funding for the project.
The Bauchi zonal office of the Fund; covering the states of Plateau, Nasarawa, Gombe, Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Borno, Kano, and Jigawa; is coordinating the partnership for the virtual registration in Plateau State.