The National Population Commission (NPC) said the proposed electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System (eCRVS) and Geospatial Data Repository, is to revolutionise recording, tracking and analysing of vital documents to conform to international best practices.
NPC Chairman Nasir Isa Kwarra at a pre-event press conference preparatory to the launch of the exercise on Wednesday by President Bola Tinubu, said the aim is to eliminate age declaration, except when used as supporting document or attestation, in case of lost of birth certificate.
Kwarra disclosed that the NPC in collaboration with United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF), developed the eCRVS Operational Readiness Assessment Report, which shows the potential of digital technologies in providing transformative outcomes in CRVS and integrating data from multiple systems to securely store data, in a cost-effective way.
According to him “The report provided the holistic approach to the future state vision for digitised CRVS, the roll out of a decentralised digital birth registration system as part of CRVS, and identified areas to strengthen the automation of the system.
“Recommendations that will significantly increase the likelihood to reach a universal digitalised birth registration system in Nigeria were made.”
He recalled that African ministers responsible for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CVRS), at the sixth session of conference of African ministers held in Addis Ababa in October 2022, encouraged member countries to automate the CRVS process and ensure the implementation of the United Nations Legal Identity Agenda.
“Member states were further encouraged to develop an electronic technology driven system to boost data generation and civil statistics,” he stated.
The Chairman said the NPC has entered into partnership with Barnksforte, an indigenous information communication technology (ICT) company, to promote the Vital Reg System as an electronic system that digitalises all civil registrations such as birth registration, still birth registration, birth attestation, adoption, marriage notification, divorce notification, migration and death.
“The system provides a digital certificate in all cases, an accessible verification platform to registered organisations, and has a central management system (dashboard) that depicts and analyses collated civil registrations into vital statistics for proper decision-making,” he added.
Kwarra explained that repository database, which will also be launched by Tinubu, will be for the use of the public and private sectors in Nigeria.
He disclosed that the NPC will engage village heads and traditional rulers to report cases of births and deaths that take place outside the hospitals, adding that in areas where there is network challenge, the data would be collated and entered to be uploaded in area where network is available.
“The launch of the e-CRVS by His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, marks the commitment of the current government and leadership to strengthen civil registration data capturing, collation, processing, dissemination and timely access to statistics on vital events in the country.
“It aims to accelerate the improved civil registration and vital statistics systems in Nigeria over a period of ten years, from 2023 to 2030 in a bid to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG):16.9.2 – legal identity for all, including birth registration,” he added.
