Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will on Wednesday, November 8 launch an electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System and Geospatial Data Repository as Nigeria departs from the old paper-based system.
The registration system includes all civil registrations such as birth registration, stillbirth registration, birth attestation, adoption, marriage notification, divorce notification, migration and death.
This was made known by the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Mr Nasir Kwarra, at a pre-launch briefing on Monday, November 6, 2023, in Abuja.
Mr Kwarra stated, ‘’The launch of the e-CRVS by Mr Tinubu marks the commitment of the current government and leadership to strengthen civil registration data capturing, collation, processing, dissemination and timely access to statistics on vital events in the country.
“It aims to accelerate the improved civil registration and vital statistics systems in Nigeria over 10 years, from 2023 to 2030 in a bid to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal.”
The chairman stated that the agency, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), developed the e-CRVS Operational Readiness Assessment Report, which showed the potential of digital technologies in providing transformative outcomes in CRVS and integrating data from multiple systems to securely store data at scale, in a cost-effective way in Nigeria.
He said, “The report ushered in the bold step taken by the commission for a transformative innovation of the eCRVS (Vital Reg) system by developing a Public Private Partnership arrangement between the Commission and Barnksforte Technologies Limited.
“The PPP arrangement is to promote the Vital Reg System as a completely electronic system that digitalizes all civil registrations such as birth registration, stillbirth registration, birth attestation, adoption, marriage notification, divorce notification, migration and death.’’
The NPC Chairman noted that the system provides a digital certificate in all cases, an accessible verification platform to registered organizations, and a central management system (dashboard) that depicts and analyses collated civil registrations into vital statistics for proper decision-making.
“This process marks a complete departure from traditional paper-based recording of vital events to a state-of-the-art digital solution that conforms to international best practices. This electronic CRVS promises to revolutionize how vital events are recorded, tracked, and analysed in the country.
“It should also be noted that NPC, in the course of preparation for the first digital Census in Nigeria, the Census mapping using a ‘cutting edge’ technological methodology, i.e. Geographic Information System captured geospatial data covering a multidimensional theme with total coverage of the country.
“This repository database will also be launched by Mr President for the use of the public and private sector in Nigeria. The CRVS National Coordination Committee will also be inaugurated by Mr President,” he added.
