The National Population Commission, NPC, said it has begun training for almost 1,500 ad hoc staff in Ogun State ahead of the commencement of digital birth registration, otherwise called e-registration.
The NPC Federal Commissioner in the state, Fasuwa Johnson, stated this on Tuesday in an interview.
Johnson revealed that the commission had last week trained personnel from 11 local government areas of the state and will on Wednesday take the training to Sagamu, Ijebu Ode and Ijebu Imushin training centres.
The commissioner, while lauding UNICEF for its e-birth registration initiative, maintained that it will aid in proper planning and policy formation.
He lamented that the country’s policies are based on outdated data, noting that having accurate data would help in effective planning and development.
He said: “We need to make sure that the birth registration drive is built on, especially the e-registration. If we can get this right, which UNICEF is trying to help with, it will be a very good one.
“We have ad hoc participants who are close to 1500 in Ogun State, and they are across the 20 local government areas. Last week, we trained 11 local government areas scattered across three training centres, and we just did a review meeting now; it was perfect.
“The meeting was to review those three and plan for the next three centres. So tomorrow we will be going to Sagamu, Ijebu Ode and Ijebu Mushin training centres.
“And what they would be doing is training them on how to capture the registration of births of kids between 0 and 5. So that anybody below five years old, we would be sure they have their digital birth certificate with them.
The commissioner maintained that the registration would be done from house to house to ensure that every child is captured and urged parents and guardians to secure the future of their children by registering them.
