The National Population Commission (NPC) has announced that birth certificates issued by local governments and hospitals cannot be used for official purposes in Nigeria.
The Commission said it has the exclusive right to issue official birth certificates as it is the only agency legally authorised to do such in the country.
This was disclosed by the Ebonyi State Director of NPC, Edward Ogbu, during a review meeting and retraining of Ebonyi State health facility workers on birth registration service delivery.
The meeting, which had health workers from all the local governments and health facilities in the state, was held in collaboration with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) at the Citi Hub Events Centre in Abakaliki.
Ogbu urged the government and health workers to mobilise parents to register their children as the exercise is a necessity.
In a keynote address, the UNICEF Chief of Field office Enugu, Ibrahim Conteh, said recent records show that child registration in the country is still very low as 57 percent of children in Nigeria do not have their births registered.