Ghana registers 63% of all new births

babyGhana had, as of July 2013,  registered 63 per cent of all new births, putting her on course to achieve its 2013 annual target to register 65 per cent of all new births, Mr John Yao Agbeko, Registrar of the Births and Death Registry, has said.

Mr Agbeko, however, said the target to register 30 per cent of all deaths would be missed.

Mr Agbeko gave the update during the 10th National Annual Births and Deaths Registration Celebration at Sang in the Mion District of the Northern Region on Monday.

The celebration, which was on the theme: “Births and Deaths Registration, Generating Quality Data for Development,” was to raise awareness about the need to register new births and deaths in order to produce reliable data for effective planning.

Mr Agbeko appealed to the public to take registration, especially of new births seriously because it formed the basis for establishing a person’s status as a national of a country to guarantee one’s entitlement to certain rights and privileges.

He said the registration of a child within 30 days of birth was free and urged all to take advantage of it because registration for children older than one month involved a long and cumbersome process which also attracted a fee.

Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini, the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, said the government was committed to revamping the Births and Deaths Registry to improve its work.

Alhaji Fuseini, therefore, called on staff of the Births and Deaths Registry to inject more commitment into their work to gather credible data for development planning.

He complained about the incidence of faking birth certificates, especially by foreigners, and called on all to work to stop the practice.

Mr Moses Dauda, the Northern Regional Births and Deaths Registration Officer, appealed to the government to absorb volunteers working with the Registry into the system to enable the Registry to improve on its work.

Mrs Emelia Allan, Child Protection Officer of the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), said despite the challenges, UNICEF was confident that the “Registry would rise to the occasion to take the needed actions to eliminate or reduce these barriers and ensure all children no matter their socio-economic background or location are registered at birth.”

The Government Statistician, whose speech was read on her behalf, “Pledged to work closely with the Births and Deaths Registry to achieve real progress towards strengthening its statistical units to produce good quality data to aid evidence-based decision making, prioritize resource allocation and to inform future policies and programmes.”

Source: GNA

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