Governor Dikko Umaru Radda of Katsina State on Friday launched the electronic birth registration (e-Birth) exercise across the state.
He described the initiative as a historic milestone in the state’s efforts to ensure that every child is recognised, protected, and counted from birth.
Speaking at the formal launch in Katsina, Radda said the e-Birth registration marks a decisive step toward ensuring that no child in the state remains invisible legally, socially, or statistically.
“Birth registration is the first legal recognition of a child’s identity and the foundation for accessing education, healthcare, social protection, and civic participation,” he said. “Without it, a child exists in the shadows, vulnerable to exploitation, exclusion, and deprivation. For too long, millions of Nigerian children have grown up without this fundamental recognition. This is not just a systemic failure but a moral deficit we must correct.”
The governor disclosed that birth certificates will soon become mandatory for accessing key government services such as education and healthcare.
“To parents, registering your child costs nothing but a few minutes of your time, yet it opens the door to a lifetime of rights and opportunities. We are building a state where governance begins at birth, and justice begins with identity,” Radda said.
He commended the Department of Girl Child Education and Child Development for its leadership; the National Population Commission (NPC) for its technical expertise; the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) for grassroots mobilisation; and UNICEF for its partnership and provision of digital tools.
“To promote accountability and community participation, we are introducing a competition among local governments and wards, with recognition for the best-performing areas in the e-Birth registration exercise,” he added.
Kelsen Osifo Ojogun, Director-General of the NPC, described the launch as a transformative milestone in Nigeria’s Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) modernisation agenda, aligning with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope vision.
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Ojogun noted that the new digital platform offers secure, real-time, and tamper-proof data capture, addressing the limitations of the old paper-based registration system, while integrating with national frameworks such as the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and the banking sector.
Presenting a progress report, the Katsina State Director of NPC, Usman Saidu, said the state has recorded significant improvement in digital birth registration, rising from 180,901 manual registrations in 2021 to over 566,000 digital registrations in 2025, marking full digitisation.
In his goodwill message, Bello Lawal Kaita, the National Chairman of ALGON, described the initiative as one of the most impactful collaborations between local governments and development partners.
Rahama Rihood Mohammed Farah, Chief of the UNICEF Field Office in Kano, said the e-Birth registration launch represents not only the continuation of a digitisation journey that began in 2023, but also a new chapter in ensuring that every child in Katsina is counted, recognised, and given an identity from birth.
