The Vice-President says that cabinet has approved a bill to decentralise births and deaths registration in the country.
He said the bill will be presented to parliament to expressed delight at the rapid pace of work on the digitization of the paper records of the Births and Deaths Registry.
“I am happy to learn that thus far 80% of the paper records have been digitised and we should see the process completed by the end of this year or latest early next year.
“When completed, the database of the births and deaths registry will be integrated with that of the National Identification Authority (NIA) for the issuance of a single NIA number for everyone from birth to death.
“It is expected that this database will also be integrated into other agencies such as SSNIT and NHIA [the Social Security and National Insurance Trust and the National Health Insurance Authority] as part of ongoing efforts by the Akufo-Addo government to make the provision of public services easier,” he added.
Ghana has only 414 registration centres nationwide. Experts say this is woefully inadequate and falls way below the UN minimum standard requirement for a country of Ghana’s size of a minimum of 6,000 registration centres.
Officials at the Births and Deaths Registry say they plan to set up a births and deaths registry in every government district hospital in the country.
Objective of the bill
The bill was submitted by the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama.
Its objective is to provide for a more efficient births and deaths registration system in the country, and to decentralise the registration system more effectively.
Among others, it seeks to expand the registration coverage nationwide; devolve the functions of births and deaths registration to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies; and ensure consistency of the registration system for births and deaths with the Local Government Act 2016 (Act 936).
