The National Population Commission ( NPopC) on Friday urged Nigerians to register the birth of their children as well as death of members of their families for effective use by government in national development plans.
Mr Muftau Adigun, Director, NPopC Lagos, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday that the data collected are used for planning by the government and also to understand population dynamics.
“We do educate people that the government needs these records for planning and development .
“With these records, government can effectively plan good healthcare, schools, recreational facilities and other benefits in a locality or state.
“We have over 140 centres for registration of births and deaths in Lagos state, both in the local government and LCDAs,’’ Adigun told NAN.
According to him, people do not register deaths as they do for births but that the commission educates people on the importance of registering deaths and even stillbirths.
The director said that all NPopC activities will soon be digitalised as training of staff has started.
He said that the use of Personal Digital Assistant ( PDA) tablets would be at local government offices to print birth and death certificates and to enter the database to guard against double registration.
“We discovered that a lot of births have not been registered for a very long time and so, we also do mop up all over the state.
“Through mop up, registration exercise is stepped up through passive and active registration exercises,’’ he said
