Tuesday 11th March , 2014 2:35 pm
The Western Regional of Birth and Death registry is to embark on a registration exercise on Wednesday.
The exercise is aimed at registering children less than one year in the 10 districts of the region.
It is estimated that over 70 percent of newborn children in the country are not registered.
The Births and Deaths Registry captured only 31 per cent of total births expected for the year 2000, it dropped to 27 percent in 2001 and dropping further to 17 percent in 2002.
The situation is worse for death registration; the government however says it needs accurate, reliable and timely data on fertility and mortality for its planning.
The Western Regional Director of the Births and Deaths Registry, Stephen Odjobni Ntow, in an interview with Citi News said, most children less than one year in coastal areas are not registered.
He revealed that parents in the coastal areas “do not want to register their children under one year which is very important to the government.”
He added that international organizations and communities have a high interest in children under the age of one and thus advised parents in the villages and smaller communities to register their children because the exercise comes at no cost.
By: Efua Idan Osam/ciifmonline.com/Ghana