An assessment of the coverage of live-birth registration across space in Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT Birth registration is an important channel that allows children to be documented, providing them with legal identity and nationality early in life and protecting them against violence, abuse and exploitation. However, this privilege has been denied to millions of children, particularly in developing countries. Registration is limited in Nigeria with about three in every five births unregistered. Using data from three waves of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, we adopt a geostatistical model to assess the space-time variations in registration coverage across Nigeria and compute the exceedance maps at different probabilities. The findings indicate a North-South divide in coverage but with improved coverage over time across the country. The probability of attaining about 60% coverage is low in the northern part of the country. The generated maps provide guiding tools to the Nigerian government to set priorities in order to scale up birth registration coverage in the country.