The Registrar of Births and Deaths, Samuel Adom Botchway, has assured Ghanaians that the long-standing challenge of paper shortages at the Registry will soon be permanently resolved.
Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, Mr. Botchway explained that when he assumed office, the Registry faced a significant backlog of 270,000 unprinted certificates, with only 120,000 security papers available for use.
The specialized paper, he said, has advanced security features similar to the Ghanaian cedi, making its procurement a time-consuming process.
“The paper we use for printing certificates has a lot of security features, so it takes time to produce. When the initial 120,000 papers got finished, we were in a tight situation,” he noted.
Mr. Botchway, however, credited the Minister for Local Government, Ahmed Ibrahim, for swiftly intervening to resolve the crisis.
“The Controller and Accountant General procures the papers for us, and through the intervention of the Local Government Minister, we received another 120,000 papers in August,” he explained. “However, by that time, the backlog had increased to 480,000 because more people were still applying.”
Currently, the backlog has risen to over 900,000 certificates, but the Registrar assured the public that measures are in place to clear it by the end of the year.
“I want to plead with Ghanaians to be patient with our officers. The printing takes time, but every applicant will receive their certificate. We are not sleeping on the job; we are fixing the problem,” he said.
Mr. Botchway revealed that the Registry is set to receive a new consignment of 750,000 security papers by the end of this month and an additional three million papers early next year.
“With the hard work of Ahmed Ibrahim and the team we put together, paper shortages will soon be a thing of the past. The local government minister is actively working to resolve all challenges,” he assured.
He reaffirmed his commitment to restoring public confidence in the Registry, saying:
“The job is difficult, but once we have accepted this mandate, we will be dutiful. I want to assure Ghanaians that the bad name attached to the Births and Deaths Registry will soon be a thing of the past.”
Source: Gertrude Otchere
ALSO READ:
