By Emeka Mamah
The National Population Commission, NPC, has asked the Federal Government to make available to it N2.1 billion for the registration of births and deaths in the country.

NPC regretted that the current level of 35 per cent coverage of the registration may delay the nation’s quest to meet the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs.

According to NPC Chairman, Chief Samuila Danko Makama, “only 35 per cent has been covered in the registration of births and deaths in Nigeria.”

Makama spoke yesterday in Kaduna during an interactive session with journalists, noting that “the Commission’s target is 100 per cent coverage of births and deaths by 2015.”

He said that NPC had established a total of 2,322 centres across the country with an average of three centres in each of the 774 local government areas, as part of measures to ensure adequate coverage.

He said: “It has become imperative that adequate financial provision be made for the programme and we require N2.1 billion to expand the programme in order to achieve the 2015 target which coincides with the MDGs deadline.”

“The vital registration programme involves the continuous and permanent recording of occurrences and characteristics of vital events such as births, deaths, still births, marriages, annulment of marriages and naturalization.

“Registration of births provides the child with the instrument of establishing nationality and the birth certificate is required for school enrolment, passport and visa requirements among other official uses.

“It also provides legal guarantees for the child against all forms of child abuse, child trafficking and child labour.

“The death certificate is required by the family of the deceased persons for insurance claims, inheritance rights and other benefits.

“The essence of the programme is to ensure that all births and deaths in Nigeria are registered and certificates issued.

“The entire programme involves huge financial costs for establishing centres, recruitment and training of personnel, logistics, procurement of registration materials and high_tech equipment for data processing and analysis. There is therefore the need for adequate financial provision for the programme.

“For the conduct of the next census in the country in 2016, the Federal Government should provide adequate funds for the exercise, while preparatory activities should commence early.

“As part of the commission’s mandate and the need to generate accurate and timely data to facilitate effective population management, I wish to use this opportunity to stress on the importance of conducting census at regular intervals,” Makama said.