LAGOS — At the Sangotedo Primary Health Centre in Lagos, mothers who have registered their babies electronically say the process is quick and easy. Mrs Deborah Eyoh, a mother of three, told ThisDay that she uses e-registration and encourages other new mothers to do the same, saying it helps prevent falsification of children's ages. Mrs Juliet Duke registered her baby at six weeks old and collected the certificate four weeks later. Yet according to UNICEF, about 3.5 million children under the age of one in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and Edo states have not had their births registered. Celine Lafoucriere, Chief of UNICEF's Lagos Field Office, said unregistered children are not counted when governments plan and fund services such as schools. She spoke at a two-day media dialogue organised with the National Population Commission (NPC). Lagos, working with the NPC and the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, was among the first southern states to formally launch registration for children under one, and birth certificates are now being linked to the National Identification Number. Barriers remain, including parents not knowing that registration is free, the distance to registration points and poor network coverage. UNICEF is supplying tablets at ward level. NPC registrar Gabriel Philip Agbatun said a registration takes about five minutes on a good network. He added that paper certificates issued before July 1, 2026, remain valid, but new paper registrations stopped from that date.