The Births and Deaths Registry has introduced a community population register to ensure that all births and deaths that occur within a community are promptly recorded.

In line with that, the registry has started a pilot programme in 25 communities across the country. The acting Registrar of Births and Deaths, Henrietta Lamptey, announced this at a media engagement on advocacy and public awareness on the timely registration of births and deaths in Accra yesterday.

She said as part of the exercise, her outfit would be embarking on a mobile mass registration campaign to bring their services closer to citizens, particularly those in rural and underserved areas.

The acting registrar, therefore, called on citizens to participate in the ongoing exercise to support the registry’s efforts to improve the country's civil registration system.

“We are now in the communities, making announcements and encouraging everyone who has not registered to do so.

“We are also addressing other concerns such as late death registrations to ensure that no one is left behind," she said.

The event was to foster collaboration with the media to ensure the public was well informed about the services and improvements being made to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of the exercise, among other objectives.

Commitment

Ms Lamptey expressed the registry’s commitment to continue with the ongoing reforms to improve service delivery and ensure accurate and timely registration across the country.

“It is our mandate but we are also structured, so we seek the support of the public and the media to make it right," she said.

Ms Lamptey urged the public to deal directly with the registry or its client services available at all regional and national offices rather than through unauthorised middlemen, saying this could lead to delays in the process and mixed-up information.

She further said that the registry was working to ensure its services were accessible to all citizens, regardless of their digital literacy or access to technology, adding that the registry had transitioned to a cashless payment system.

The Head of Project Unit at the registry, Emmanuel Botchwey, said his outfit offered a wide range of services to the public, including alterations to birth records, registration of deaths after burial (with evidence), verification of records and the issuance of burial permits for remains brought into the country or exported from the country.

He said they also handled cases such as the registration of births resulting from surrogate arrangements and adoptions, exhumation and reburial, and cancellation of each entry in the register of births.

Mr Botchwey said that the registry had introduced advanced systems to prevent duplication of birth certificates, adding that it had also maintained over 90 per cent coverage of birth registration across the country for the past three years.