The National Population Commission, NPC, has commenced the nationwide digital registration of births and deaths under the Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, E CRVS, system in a move aimed at strengthening legal identity management and improving the country’s demographic database. Speaking at a press briefing in Lokoja on Tuesday, the Federal Commissioner representing Kogi State, Mr Afolabi Yori, said the initiative became operational across the country on July 1 through the VitalReg platform. He described the rollout as a major milestone that would modernise Nigeria’s civil registration system and align it with global standards.
Yori explained that the technology driven platform would enhance service delivery, improve data integrity and ensure that every birth and death in the country is accurately documented and securely stored. According to him, civil registration plays a critical role beyond administrative purposes by providing reliable statistics that guide public policy, resource allocation and national development planning. He noted that although Nigeria records about five million births annually, birth registration coverage stands at only 57 per cent, while death registration remains below 20 per cent.
The commissioner disclosed that the commission currently operates 4,011 functional registration centres across the 774 local government areas and plans to increase the number to about 8,000 nationwide. He added that the VitalReg platform, implemented through a Public Private Partnership with Barnks forte Technologies Limited, would provide faster registration services, round the clock online access, digital certificate issuance where applicable, while reducing paperwork, waiting time and unnecessary travel. He appealed to parents, healthcare providers, traditional and religious leaders, civil society organisations, development partners and the media to support the initiative by promoting timely registration of births and deaths.
Also speaking, the NPC State Director in Kogi, Mr Samuel Omonakpeme, described the digital registration system as another milestone in strengthening Nigeria’s Civil Registration and Vital Statistics framework. He said the initiative supports the Federal Government’s digital transformation agenda and the Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 on legal identity for all. During the event, the commission’s ICT team conducted a live demonstration of the VitalReg platform, showing that the registration process captures the biodata of both parents, while requiring at least one parent to possess a valid National Identification Number, NIN, before the registration of a newborn can be completed.