National Orientation Agency (NOA) has pledged collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in a significant stride towards achieving universal registration and legal identity for all Nigerian children in alignment with the UNICEF vision for 2030.
The director-general (DG) of the NOA, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, stated this in a press release yesterday in Abuja when the UNICEF team, led by the chief child protection officer at UNICEF, Ibrahim Siseh, paid him a visit.
He said the primary objective of the meeting was to forge a strategic partnership aimed at devising an action plan and sensitisation campaign to achieve universal registration and legal identity for all children in Nigeria.
Issa-Onilu emphasised that under the framework of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.9, which emphasizes the importance of providing legal identity for all, including birth registration, only 60-65 percent of children in Nigeria are currently registered, highlighting the urgent need for action.
Furthermore, he said the collaboration between UNICEF and NOA entails leveraging digitalized systems and existing health services to ensure that every child receives a birth certificate.
Issa-Onilu said overcoming household barriers and increasing demand for quality civil registration services are key priorities, along with engaging traditional communicators to influence customary practices and improve social communication.
Highlighting the significance of the partnership, Issa-Onilu emphasized the organisation’s commitment to working with stakeholders on issues concerning women and children, including promoting family values and parenting.
He stressed the importance of community sensitisation and the role of traditional leaders in driving the agenda of citizen registration.
He noted that leveraging demographic databanks and traditional platforms to reach Nigerians effectively, drawing parallels with successful campaigns such as polio eradication and girl-child education, remain the best way to achieve the goals of the campaign.