The Births and Deaths Registry recorded 663,223 births between January and December, 2023, Mr Adam Zig-Naa Abudulai, Public Relations Officer (PRO), Births and Deaths Registry, has disclosed. The Registry also recorded 53,671 deaths, within the same period. Mr Abdulai said although there was a little decline in percentage for birth registration, it had met its achievement based on higher targets set. The PRO told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that there had been consistent increase in the national coverage of over 70 per cent for births in the past years, although there was a deep decline in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Births and Deaths Registry, Act (1027) by its core mandate is expected to capture and provide registration of new born babies and deaths in the country to improve the collection and collation of statistics for national development. The PRO said the achievement was due to proactive measures taken by the Registry in all districts to meet set targets. Some of the measures are mobile mass registration exercises in hospitals and weighing centres to register babies and to sensitise mothers on the importance of early registration since registration from zero to 12 months old is free. The PRO said the Registry had habitually adopted such progressive approaches in registering new born babies in health centres to achieve national coverage. 'Birth registration from zero to 12 months is free. That is why we always encourage mothers to register their babies at the weighing centres, since the process is fast and free,' he said. Mr Abdulai noted that registering deaths was below 40 per cent due to reluctance of the public in registering deceased family members, which remained a challenge. He told the GNA that efforts were being made to address the challenge. Mr Adudulai said the Registry was engaging stakeholders, particularly religious leaders to help encourage their members to register the death of their deceased relatives. He said the initiative would eliminate indiscriminate burials. He noted that religious leaders were the first point of call when death occurred, hence their involvement was key, saying: 'We have engaged the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharabutu and other religious faiths to support the initiative.' He said the registration process for deaths normally took about a day or two, free and fast, however, late registration attracted a penalty where some information and documents would have to be provided, which took more than a day. Mr Abudulai said a pilot community population registration initiative was ongoing in hard to reach areas as an effort to ensure total coverage. He said issues with double registration had been resolved as the system had been updated and strengthened to track and deal with such issues. He urged the public not to discard their birth certificates provided at birth, adding that those who misplaced their certificates could apply for a search and replacement instead of doing new certificates. 'For now, the system that we have in place is able to detect double entries so such registrations will be flagged and will not be done for applicants,' he added. Mr Abudulai said activities of middle men, popularly known as 'Goro Boys' was affecting their work as they produced fake documents, which were often detected and rejected. Mr Abudulai called on government to provide extra funding to assist the Registry in executing its mandate effectively.

Source: Ghana News Agency