NPC digitises births, deaths registrations across Nigeria

The National Population Commission (NPC) has commenced digitisation of births, deaths and other vital registrations across the country in its quest to ensure preservation of important data that would assist government in planning and policy formulations.

NPC Federal Commissioner in charge of Oyo State and Chairman, Civil and Vital Registration Statistics (CVRS) Committee, Dr Tayo Oyetunji disclosed this on Tuesday in Lokoja at the flag off a four-day “Finalisation and Report Production workshop for 2014 and 2015 scanned vital registration forms”, organised for departmental heads in the vital registration unit of the Commission.

He said since the universal registration of births and deaths began in Nigeria in 1988, the process had been done by the Commission manually thus resulting in loss and missing of vital data.

According to him, the Commission has so far been able to convert all the vital registration forms for 2014 and 2015 across the country from analogue to digital format while plans are on to also convert the analogue vital registration forms from 2004 up till date.

Dr Oyetunji described the migration from analogue to digital format as a “major milestone” by the Commission, adding that it would enable policy makers and researchers to have easy access to data wherever they are.

“What it means is that we would be able to house all our data in a digital form and can be saved in the cloud. And that means that 100 years from now, you can still access such data.

“It also means that the data can be made available on the web for you to access wherever you are all over the globe.

“We can analyze data and make comparison with what is happening in every parts of the country. The migration from analogue to electronic is a milestone that the commission has achieved. After this, we are going to begin to launch the results of the registration in every state,” he said.

While declaring the workshop opened, Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello, said births and deaths registrations in the country were critical as they help government in planning and policy formulations.

The governor, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Arc. Abdulmumeen Okara, maintained that vital registrations were necessary in monitoring key outcome/indicators in the SDGs especially as it affects maternal mortality and poverty.

He said Kogi state government had always supported the civil registration department in provision of befitting registration centres across the state and in creating awareness through relevant agencies, assuring the Commission of its supports in the forthcoming national population census.

The Federal Commissioner in charge of Kogi State, Prof Jimoh Isah, on his part, said effective births and deaths registrations in the country would go a long way in completing the data often harvested from the national population census which comes up after every 10 years.