By Cross Udo, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday launched the National Geospatial Data Repository, Digital Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) System.
The President also inaugurated the national coordination committees for CRVS.
The CRVS is the government system to records, in a continuous, permanent, compulsory, and universal manner, the occurrences and characteristics of vital and civil status events related to citizens and residents to gather accurate data on the population.
Speaking during the ceremony at the presidential villa, Abuja, President Tinubu noted that the timing of the launch could be debated even as he commended the initiative of the National Population Commission (NPC), saying that it marks another great step in the nation’s efforts to generate accurate and reliable demographic data.
According to him, “The CRVS system is the basic building block of an identity ecosystem. It helps to improve service delivery, care, and knowledge to Nigerians and shall ultimately become a vital source of identity data across federal agencies such as the NIMC, NIS, Road Safety, Police, EFCC, and other security outfits.
“The system will also improve the ability of the federal agencies to generate vital statistics on important population events and migration further enabling the government to design well-tailored, effective, and efficient policies capable of meeting the needs of Nigerian people.”
Tinubu expressed gratitude that Nigeria had not witnessed disasters as he noted that even with incidents of minor magnitude involving the lives of people, “you cannot easily say these are how many people that were involved.”
He expressed the hope that the current drive to reposition the vital registration system will provide the basis for 100 per cent attainment of the nation’s 2030 SDG targets concerning real-time identity management and population data.
He further said, “For me at this time, the commission has made substantial progress in its quest to deliver the first digital population and housing census. I hope that the result of the census will provide the nation with much-needed data for development planning and the enthronement of good governance.”
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*Pledges support to NPC for census conduct
The President called on the NPC to deploy its cutting-edge technology, especially the geospatial data that has been collected through the enumeration area, and demarcation in implementing the CRVS.
He affirmed that the population remains the greatest asset of the nation in the development process, adding that collecting accurate and reliable information on the size distribution, composition and characteristics of the population is an essential governance activity which he said is also consistent with his administration’s renewed hope agenda.
President Tinubu promised that the NPC would be supported and the conduct of this next census.
He thanked UNICEF and others for partnering with Nigeria over the years as he expressed the nation’s determination to work on the road to success with them and realize all dreams.
“The prosperity of our nation is assured if we can do a reliable and dependable exercise,” he declared.
Inaugurating the National Coordination Committee of CRVS under the chairmanship of NPC, he urged the relevant ministries, departments, and agencies to cooperate fully to realise the objectives, adding: “Please I appeal to all of you ministries, departments, and agencies, don’t say this is not my business, please cooperate.”
On the significance of the launch, the Chairman, NPC, Nasir Isa Kwarra, said that it will emphasize the commitment of the current government and leadership to strengthen civil registration data capturing, collation, processing, dissemination, and timely access to vital statistics in the country.
He said it will 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 (SD): 16.9.2 – legal identity for all, including birth registration.
In her goodwill remark at the occasion, the Country Representative of UNICEF, Cristian Munduate, while digitising civil registration in Nigeria transcends technology; it is a pledge to future generations.
“Every child’s existence will now be acknowledged, marking a new era where every significant life event informs our nation’s development,” she said.
