Births and Deaths Registry ‘abandoned’ in wooden structure

The visit was intended for the minister to acquaint himself with the challenges facing the registry, with the view to finding solutions to them.

During the visit, it was observed that apart from the fact that there was no back-up for the data stored on the registry's only server, a fire outbreak could also wreak enormous havoc on the files there.

Also, some files containing data on births and deaths registration had not been bound and that, according to Mr Faibi, was the result of the lack of funds.

The oldest document at the registry is a 1912 file.

According to Mr Faibi, the 1912 file contained information on the registration of births and deaths of Europeans and a few educated Ghanaians around that time.

"We are losing the records on some people, as their files are torn," he stated.

The Births and Deaths Registry has the general responsibility of handling and developing the births and deaths registration system in the country.

It was established by the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1965 (Act301) in response to the realisation of the important uses to which population statistics generated on a continuous and permanent basis could be put. These include administrative, demographic estimates, research and socio-economic planning purposes.

The registry is one of the three departments under the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment and it exists to provide accurate and reliable information on all births and deaths occurring within Ghana for the socio-economic development of the country through their registration and certification.

The registry is faced with inadequate personnel. It has current staff of 296, as against more than 400 registration centres in different parts of the country.

Currently, there are no registration centres in some of the newly created districts.

Mr Agbeko, the Registrar of the Births and Deaths Registry, said the registry was considering engaging the services of national service persons to assist.

According to the Principal Assistant Registrar, Reverend Kingsley Asare Addo, mobile registration was organised periodically for communities to improve their data.

 Mr Opong-Fosu commended the staff for having braved the odds to work under the prevailing conditions.

He said the government was exploring opportunities available in partnering the private sector to improve social services, adding that it would not be a bad idea to engage the private sector in such a project.

"There are some ongoing discussions, though they have not been finalised," he said, and stated that the government would work towards addressing the accommodation challenges facing the registry.

"The building poses a lot of challenges. We have just been fortunate that there has not been any incident," he stated.

 Mr Opong-Fosu said there would be better structures in place to help the registry in the collation of data.

Story by Naa Lamiley Bentil