Edo State recorded a total
of 632,543 births from 2006 to November, 2013, the National Population Commission (NPC) said yesterday.
Head of Vital Registration Department of the NPC, Mr Tunji Sanni, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Benin.
Sanni said that 21,119 births were recorded in 2006; 44,109 in 2007; 81, 917 in 2008; 84, 868 in 2009; 92, 777 in 2010 and 104,301 births in 2011.
He said that 100, 823 births were recorded in 2012 while 102,629 births were recorded from January to November, 2013.
The official said that the commission had put in place measures to ensure accurate data recording, adding that it was collaborating with stakeholders in that regard.
“We have about 109 centres where births, deaths and stillbirths are recorded in the state.
“Women who are delivered by traditional births attendants go for routine immunisation; so, it is at this point that their children are captured.
“We have a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state Ministry of Health so that nurses will fill the forms for mothers who come to deliver at primary health care facilities.
“We recently signed an MoU with the Ministry of Basic Education so that headmasters in public primary schools will demand for birth certificates of children entering pre-nursery and nursery classes.
“When these children don’t have birth certificates, they are given forms to fill, while registrars in the catchment areas will go to the schools to issue birth certificates to them,” Sanni said.
He added that birth registrars visited palaces of traditional rulers in rural areas to ensure that children in such areas were captured.
