The National Population Commission (NPC) says despite Nigeria recording an estimated five million births annually, millions of births and deaths still go unregistered, leaving many citizens without legal identity and undermining the availability of reliable demographic data for national planning.
NPC Chairman, Dr. Aminu Yusuf who disclosed this during the launch of Nigeria’s Fully Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (E-CRVS) system and the nationwide rollout of the VitalReg digital platform for birth and death registration at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja,said birth registration coverage currently stands at about 57 per cent, while death registration remains below 20 per cent nationwide.
He explained that the VitalReg platform, which became operational on July 1, 2026, across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, is expected to improve birth and death registration, strengthen data integrity, and align Nigeria’s civil registration system with international best practices.
Dr. Yusuf disclosed that the Commission currently operates 4,011 functional registration centres across the country’s 774 local government areas and plans to expand the number to about 8,000 to improve access to registration services nationwide.
He also announced a review of charges for specialised services, including record modification, certificate reissuance, attestation, and verification requests.
Earlier, the Federal Commissioner representing Oyo State in the National Population Commission, Dr. Eyitayo Oyetunji, described the transition to a fully digital civil registration system as the Commission’s most significant milestone since it assumed responsibility for civil registration in 1988.
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The Commission called on the media to intensify public awareness of the new platform, stressing that the Federal Government continues to provide free birth registration for children between the ages of zero and five years, as well as free death registration services across the country.
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