New electronic system promises faster processing, improved access to legal identity, and a stronger national population database……
The National Population Commission (NPC) has officially transitioned to a fully digital system for registering births and deaths across Nigeria, introducing a new electronic platform known as VitalReg to modernise civil registration services nationwide.
The digital registration exercise, which commenced on July 1, 2026, is part of the Commission’s Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (E-CRVS) initiative aimed at making birth and death registration faster, more secure, and easily accessible to Nigerians regardless of location.
Speaking on the rollout in Minna, NPC Chairman Aminu Yusuf described the introduction of the VitalReg platform as a landmark step in the Commission’s efforts to reform Nigeria’s civil registration system and improve access to legal identity.
Also speaking, the NPC Director in Niger State, Yusuf Sabo, said the platform allows Nigerians to access birth and death registration services online 24 hours a day. He explained that eligible users will also be able to obtain digital certificates through the platform while benefiting from seamless integration with other government digital identity systems.
According to Sabo, the new system replaces the traditional paper-based registration process with automated data verification, significantly reducing delays, eliminating cumbersome paperwork, and improving the accuracy of records. He noted that the platform would also strengthen Nigeria’s Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) database, providing government with more reliable demographic data for planning and policy formulation.
To deepen access to registration services, the Commission has entered into a partnership with the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), UNICEF, and Barnksforte Technologies Limited.
The partnership, Sabo explained, is designed to decentralise birth registration by bringing services closer to communities, increasing public participation, and ensuring that more Nigerians are captured in the country’s legal identity system.
He further disclosed that Barnksforte Technologies Limited is serving as the Commission’s technical partner under a public-private partnership arrangement. The company is responsible for ensuring the platform remains operational, secure from cyber threats, and regularly updated with new technological improvements.
Sabo added that the latest rollout builds on the Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics system inaugurated by President Bola Tinubu on November 8, 2023, alongside the establishment of the National Coordination Committee on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics.
He said the digital registration platform is now fully operational across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Despite recording an estimated five million births every year, Nigeria continues to struggle with low registration rates. The NPC said only about 57 per cent of births are officially registered, while death registration remains below 20 per cent, leaving millions of citizens without legal identity and limiting the availability of reliable population data for national development.
The Commission, however, reassured Nigerians that birth registration and birth notification services remain highly subsidised. It emphasised that the recent review of service charges is intended to improve service delivery and not to discourage citizens from registering births or deaths.
