By Peter Emmanuel |
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expanded its child birth registration programme in rural communities across Kano State, aiming to ensure that more children are legally documented and able to access essential services.
The initiative, supported by the Government of the Netherlands, is focused on improving access to birth registration in hard-to-reach areas where many children remain unregistered.
According to UNICEF, the exercise is helping mothers register their children for the first time, providing them with official birth certificates that serve as proof of identity and are essential for accessing healthcare, education, and other social services.
The programme is being implemented with the support of community health workers who use digital tools to register births and issue certificates directly to families in rural settlements.
In one of the recorded outreach activities in rural Kano, mothers were seen receiving birth certificates for their children, an outcome UNICEF described as critical to securing children’s future and protecting their rights.
UNICEF noted that child birth registration remains a key development challenge in parts of northern Nigeria, despite progress made in recent years.
Data from the organisation shows that about 14 million births have been registered in Nigeria over the past two years through UNICEF-supported programmes. However, coverage gaps persist, particularly in rural communities across northern states such as Kano.
The agency said expanding registration efforts is essential to closing the identity gap and ensuring that every child is counted within national systems.
UNICEF added that strengthening birth registration systems will also support better planning for education, health, and social protection services across the country.
The organisation reaffirmed its commitment to working with government and development partners to ensure universal child birth registration in Nigeria.
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