Reviewed Article and nationality certificate etc. 6. Today, millions of people around the world are denied a nationality. As a result, they often are not allowed to go to school, see a doctor, get a job, open a bank account, buy a house or even get married 7. Therefore, it means that stateless persons are denied certain basic rights and this makes them one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our society. At least 10 million people around the world are stateless, according to estimates from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 8. In West Africa, the figures published by UNHCR include 700,000 stateless persons in Côte d’Ivoire and unknown numbers for the rest of the region, with an estimate of around 1 million. 9 Nigeria is one country in West Africa that has been identified by the UNHRC to have stateless persons 10. During the course of this research, it was discovered that the data collection for the estimated number of stateless persons in Nigeria is still on going. Generally, the UNHCR has identified certain causes of statelessness in West Africa. They reported that statelessness in West Africa is largely due to gaps in existing law provisions on citizenships and other factors such as limited access to documentation, including birth certificate, nomadism, migration and transfer of territory among A paper presented by UNHCR at Statelessness Training on the 22-23rd May, 2019, Abuja Ending Statelessness op. cit. p.2 8 Who Belongs? Statelessness and Nationality in West Africa retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/who-belongs-statelessness-and-nationality-west-africa last visited 1st July 2019 9 ibid 10 ibid 6 7 7