The Okere District Assembly in the Eastern Region is to embark on a mass birth registration exercise in the district.
The registration which will commence on April 7, 2021, will end on April 15, 2021 The Assembly has released a movement plan for the exercise to be carried out in seven main towns.
Children above one year and adults without birth certificates will be registered during the exercise to be conducted by the birth and death registry of the assembly.
A birth certificate will be issued to all applicants.
The exercise according to Daniel Kenneth, DCE for Okere is to build a reliable database on the birth and death of people in the area to help use the data to take policy interventions that will inure to the benefit of the citizenry.
“We in Okere see it as our mandate to facilitate and make processes and institutions easily accessible to our citizenry. Our maxim OkereMovingForward inculcates a holistic approach to solving the needs of our people so that we can progress. We are therefore bringing to their doorsteps the opportunity to easily get their birth certificate. This approach is the true form of local government and decentralization that leads to rural development” the DCE said.
This has become necessary since the majority of residents in the District do not have birth certificates.
Vital registration in Ghana (the Gold Coast) began as far back as 1888. However, at its inception, it was the registration of deaths. It was not until 1912 that the registration of births was introduced. The registration system has gone through a series of transformations just as the law establishing it has seen several amendments. All this was aimed at improving upon the final delivery system.
Starting with the Cemeteries Ordinance of 1888, it was first amended in 1891. In 1912, it became the Births and Deaths and Burials Ordinance, which was once again amended in 1926. This was finally replaced with the Registration of Births and Deaths Act of 1965, (Act 301) which is the legislation currently in force.
The Births and Deaths Registry was therefore established by the Act 301 of 1965, within the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, to handle and develop the births and deaths registration system in Ghana. Its core business is to provide accurate and reliable information on all births and deaths occurring within Ghana for the Socioeconomic Development of the Country through its registration and certification.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
