The National Population Commission (NPC) has registered 49,979 births, 8,298 birth attestations and 129 deaths in Cross River State within three months of implementing its digital civil registration system.
The figures, recorded as of September 2026, were disclosed by the commission’s Federal Commissioner in the state, Alex Ukam, in Calabar on Wednesday.
Ukam said the registrations were made through the Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics platform, known as E-CRVS, which became operational nationwide on July 1, 2026, through the VitalReg platform.
He described the figures as evidence of the potential of digital registration to improve the capture of births and deaths, including those that occurred in previous years but were never officially recorded.
Ukam said Nigeria recorded an estimated five million births annually, but millions remained unregistered, leaving many citizens without legal identity documents and limiting the availability of reliable data for national planning.
He warned that manual registration of births and deaths by commission staff or agents was now unlawful under the new system.
According to him, the digital platform is designed to strengthen civil registration, improve the generation of vital statistics and ensure that births and deaths across the country are properly documented.
The federal commissioner, however, said the state’s 65 functional registration centres were insufficient to meet the population’s needs.
He called for more registration centres and stronger collaboration with stakeholders to improve staff capacity and ensure timely documentation of vital events.
Ukam commended President Bola Tinubu for approving the implementation of the system, the commission’s board for driving the transition, and Governor Bassey Otu for supporting the initiative.
He also urged comptrollers and registrars across the state to increase registration figures and expand coverage.
Meanwhile, the commission has dismissed allegations that obsolete materials meant for the postponed 2023 Population and Housing Census were diverted for political purposes.
The NPC State Director, Roland Auguser, said the commission’s board approved the disposal of obsolete census materials on July 14, 2026, in accordance with the Public Procurement Act 2007.
He said certified auctioneers were engaged to conduct the exercise, while state offices were instructed to retrieve power banks from central banks and present them alongside extension boxes, raincoats, manuals and life jackets stored in their offices.
Auguser said the Cross River office complied with the directive on October 12, 2026, when a team led by the Deputy Director of General Services at the commission’s Abuja headquarters conducted the auction peacefully.
The commission described allegations that Ukam diverted the materials for use as campaign gifts for the APC candidate in Akamkpa/Biase Federal Constituency as baseless, urging the public to disregard the report.
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