Hajia Alima Mahama, the Sector Minister, said the Attorney-General’s Department had already reviewed the draft Bill.Hajia Mahama made the disclosure on Tuesday when the Ministry took its turn at the “Meet-The-Press Series” in Accra.

The event afforded the Minister the opportunity to present the state of affairs of the Ministry over the past 16 months.In attendance were Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the Minister of Information, and his Deputy, Mr Perry Okudzeto.

Also present were the three deputy ministers of Local Government; Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, Mr Collins Ntim and Mr Kwasi Boateng Agyei; and Dr Nana Ato Arthur, the Head of Local Government Service.Hajia Mahama said in 2017, a total of 551,933 births, representing 64 per cent of 861,447 projected births, were registered.

She said within the period 48,648 deaths, representing 16.6 per cent of 293,116 deaths, were registered adding; “Community Registration Programme was expanded to 30 Communities and Registration Centres were established in 26 rural communities”.

She said the Birth and Death Registry had completed training, installation and deployment of the ICT system meant for the transformation of the registration process.Hajia Mahama noted that the system had been installed in all the registries of the 216 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and a test run had since started.

She said the Ministry, through the Births and Deaths Registry, was collaborating with the National Identification Authority (NIA) to issue the GhanaCard.On the outlook for the Local Government Ministry, Hajia Mahama said the Ministry would expand births and deaths registration to cover at least 90 per cent and 40 per cent of projected births and deaths respectively by 2020.

She said in developing programmes at the Ministry, they were being guided by National Policy Frameworks such as the Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies, 2017-2024, the National Public Sector Reform Strategy (2018- 2023), the Urban Development Policy, the Rural Development Policy (Draft) and the National Decentralisation Policy Framework II.