By Abdullahi Jalaluddeen
The National Population Commission (NPC) says it is working to harmonise marriage and divorce registration nationwide to establish a comprehensive database for civil registration and vital statistics.
The commission’s Overseeing Commissioner, Mrs Mary Ishaya Afan, disclosed this in Kano at a stakeholder consultation on the Draft Harmonised Protocol for Marriage and Divorce Registration in Nigeria.
Represented by the Director of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, Mrs Anthonia Eze, Afan said the initiative would strengthen institutional coordination and improve the availability of reliable data for national development.
She explained that different registration procedures operated by statutory marriage registries, churches, Islamic institutions and traditional bodies had resulted in fragmented records and unreliable statistics.
Also speaking, the Deputy Director in charge of the Civil Registration Unit at the NPC headquarters, Abuja, Mrs Obodo Adaku, said the consultation aimed to identify gaps and establish common procedures for registering marriages and divorces.
Adaku said the proposed protocol would clarify institutional responsibilities and facilitate the digital integration of records into the commission’s electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics system, including the VITALREG platform.
It would cover statutory, customary, Islamic and Christian marriages.
The consultation attracted stakeholders from government agencies, the judiciary, religious and traditional institutions, civil society organisations and other partners. The workshop was organised with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Editing By Safiyah Abdulkadir
