As Nigeria joins other nations in the continent to commemorate the African civil and vital statistics day,over 4000 additional centres are required to activate national coverage of birth and death registration scheme across the country. This is as 43percent of under 5 children are presently registered at birth with not more than 10 percent death also captured in Nigeria. The implication of this development suggests that many persons are born and also die without any trave of their existence in a legal record. However, the National Population Commission NPC at a press conference to mark the 2021 civil registration and vital statistics day in Abuja indicated plans to change the narrative. Meanwhile, representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF, Ibrahim Sesay in his remarks highlighted the relevance of an accurate and reliable statistics for evidence based decision making process. The theme of the 2021 CRVS day is: Leadership for an essential service: Building resilient civil registration and vital statistics systems in Africa that provide innovative, integrated and decentralized services for the post Covid 19 period
