The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that millions of Nigerian children without birth registration are at risk of being excluded from essential public services and social protection programmes. The organisation said legal identity is the foundation upon which children can access and exercise their basic rights throughout life. Beyond individual rights, Lafoucriere said birth registration was critical to effective government planning and budgeting. “Birth registration, civil registration is the child’s identity and it is the foundational right of every child’s rights. She said journalists would receive relevant data, statistics and expert interviews to support their reporting on birth registration and other child-related issues.