Ahead of the e-birth registration flag-off for children in Ekiti State, no fewer than 700 ad hoc staff have been trained and awaiting deployment by the National Population Commission (NPC) for the exercise.
NPC Director in the state, Yemisi Ipinlaye, who disclosed this in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital said the exercise will commence soon across the 16 local government areas of the state.
Ipinlaye said children mostly between age 0-5 were being targeted for capturing for the digital birth registration.
The NPC boss who noted that preparations towards the exercise was on top gear, added that the Initiative was geared towards digitised birth registration certificates of children within the age group.
Ipinlaye stressed that the e-birth registration would afford United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), ministries and other relevant agencies and organisations the opportunity to access the children's database in the country in a digital format.
She added that the trained personnel were to be deployed to work alongside registrars and controllers across at the 16 local governments areas and 22 Local Council Development Areas, (LCDAs) to collect and collate data.
The Ekiti NPC boss added that the Commission will also incorporate the use of the National Identity Number (NIN) for each child to ensure seamless registration in the future.
"The benefit of the digital birth registration is that we want every child in the age range of 0-5 have a birth certificate in a digitalised form.
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"We want them to be on the NPC and UNICEF portal and database. If there is anything they want to do, they will make reference to it.
"UNICEF is interested in all their programmes; they have an interest in children between the ages of 0 and 5. We employed people from outside, ad hoc staff with our registrars and controllers who have been doing this job.
"These are the people who will directly go to people at the grassroots to collect their data.
"Our people will reach everyone, including those who gave birth with traditional attendants.
"We have not started the exercise in Ekiti; we are still in training but we are likely to commence on Friday.
"We are training almost 700 people. They are in categories, and the identity card people are among them because those who have not gotten NIN will be there to get it.
"We are integrating NIN into the ID cards. When the parents come to register their children, they will do the NIN for the child too because it is required" Ipinlaye said.
While dismissing the claim in some quarters that digital birth registration was a strategy designed to reduce the country's population, she said, "The people saying digital birth registration is a way of controlling population are ignorant of its actual mission."
