UNICEF Ghana Country Representative, Kuami Eugene, officials from the Birth and Death Registry, Chiefs and the Queen of Bepowase
To mark Birth Registration Month, UNICEF Ghana Country Representative Andy Brooks, Afrobeats star Kuami Eugene and officials from the Births and Deaths Registry [BDR] led a joint field visit to Bepowase, a community of 3,000 people in the Ayensuano District of the Eastern Region.
The initiative aimed to harness UNICEF’s advocacy leadership and Kuami Eugene’s expansive public platform to elevate the national conversation on child rights.
By engaging directly with residents, the delegation sought to highlight recent progress, understand operational barriers affecting underperforming districts, and advocate for every child’s fundamental right to legal identity and access to essential social services.
Falling Numbers
Ghana’s birth registration performance has declined in recent years. In 2023, 663,226 births were registered, equivalent to a 90.8% registration rate.
This was slightly lower than the 92.3% recorded in 2022, when 677,140 births were registered. Compared with the 786,468 live births recorded by the Ghana Health Service, BDR registrations represented 84.3% of health-service records.
By the end of 2025, total births registered stands at 588,972, representing only 73.4% of expected coverage.
Coverage varies considerably across regions. In 2023, Ashanti, Greater Accra and Northern recorded the largest shares of registered births.
Savannah, Ashanti, Upper East and Western exceeded their expected targets, while Eastern Region recorded relatively low coverage. Historically, registration has been substantially higher in urban than rural areas, with rural coverage reported at 51% compared with 73% in urban areas.
Key Barriers
Several barriers continue to hinder birth registration in communities like Bepowase.
Geographical inaccessibility: Registration offices and outreach services are often too far from rural, remote and island communities. Poor roads, seasonal inaccessibility and limited transport make registration costly and difficult. In a bottleneck study, 66% of parents who had not registered their children cited lack of access to the service.
Costs and unofficial charges: Although registration is legally free for children under 12 months, parents are sometimes charged unofficial fees. Late registration also attracts official fees and additional procedural requirements, which disproportionately affect low-income families.
Insufficient funding, staff and logistics: Under-resourcing contributes to shortages of registration forms and certificates, inadequate transport for outreach work, weak facilities and insufficient staffing. These problems cause service disruptions and, in some cases, children are registered without receiving certificates immediately.
Consequences of Non-Registration
Non-registration has serious consequences. First, lack of legal identity means the child may not be officially recognised by government, making it difficult to prove their name, date and place of birth, nationality or family relationships.
Second, limited access to services: Without a birth certificate, children may face difficulties accessing education, healthcare, social benefits, passports and national identity documents.
Finally, greater vulnerability to abuse: Lack of proof of identity or age can make children more vulnerable to trafficking, unlawful adoption, child labour, early marriage and other exploitation. It may also make it harder to protect them or prosecute offenders.
Children Becoming Legally Invisible
Speaking to the press, UNICEF Ghana Country Representative Andy Brooks highlighted that Ghana’s birth registration rate has dropped from around 90% to roughly 74-75%.
In response, UNICEF is supporting national, regional and district BDR services by targeting communities with low registration numbers, such as Bepowase.
He said the field visit will serve as an operational model to strengthen the registration system nationwide.
“Failing to register a child leaves them legally invisible and omitted from child population counts, creating severe long-term consequences,” he noted. “And without accurate population figures, public services like schooling and healthcare cannot be planned properly.”
He explained that vaccination teams might only bring enough doses for a small fraction of the actual child population, leaving thousands without life-saving protection.
To solve this, he emphasised the need for a continuous referral pipeline starting with healthcare services immediately referring newborns to the registry, which ensures registration remains free during a child’s first year.
According to him, schools must also check for birth certificates upon enrollment to catch older children who missed initial registration.
“Because district registrars face logistical challenges covering over 60 communities, community chiefs play a critical role by ensuring local parents submit their details, allowing registrars to batch-process and deliver dozens of birth certificates during periodic visits,” he said.
Regional Registry Struggles With Network and Staffing
The Regional Registrar for the Eastern Region, Edward Abrahams, said UNICEF serves as their primary support system for birth registration efforts.
However, the region faces significant operational hurdles, including poor internet connectivity that impedes officers from completing digital registrations in field communities.
“The registry is also severely understaffed and relies heavily on volunteers who have grown demotivated due to the lack of financial compensation or incentives,” he said.
“While occasional support from UNICEF allows team members to enter communities to register newborns, who qualify for free registration during their first 12 months, they frequently miss older children who have passed the free age limit,” he added.
Registration Is Protection
Musician Eugene Kwame Marfo, popularly known as Kuami Eugene, highlighted the urgency of birth registration.
He expressed surprise during his visit to Bepowase, noting that it was his first time seeing a village in Ghana with virtually no internet access or cellular connectivity.
He highlighted that approximately 80% of the children in the community remain unregistered, creating a critical hurdle that prevents families from securing legal identity and essential protection.
According to him, having an identity document is essential not just for future travel or proof of nationality, but also for security, as lack of documentation leaves children vulnerable to abduction or trafficking without any legal paper trail.
As an artist who hosts his own kids’ festival, Kuami Eugene emphasised that influencers and celebrities should leverage their reach on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook to amplify social causes.
“I believe every public figure with a platform has a duty to help broadcast the necessity of registering children so that lack of identity ceases to be an ongoing crisis in Ghana,” he said.
Community Pleads For Network, Roads and Schools
The Assembly Member for Bepowase Electoral Area, Esther Teiko, emphasised that birth certificates are vital proof of Ghanaian citizenship necessary for SHS enrollment, government jobs, security purposes, identity and international travel.
She added that community outreach and public education have successfully boosted local awareness.
Despite progress, Madam Teiko highlighted persistent infrastructural deficits. Bepowase suffers from a complete lack of telecommunication network coverage, forcing residents to walk nearly a kilometre to place a call.
“I want to plead with those outside or the government to come to our aid. We have no network coverage here. It makes us feel lost, as if we are not part of Ghana. It makes birth registration very difficult because it has been digitalised. So if stakeholders can help us get a network connection so we can link up with the rest of the nation, we would be very grateful,” she pleaded.”
The area’s severely deteriorated road network connecting Bepowase to Adawso has discouraged commercial drivers, leaving the community reliant on motorbikes and largely cut off from broader public services.
She also appealed for help establishing a functional computer laboratory. The local basic school’s population of over 200 relies solely on textbooks for ICT instruction due to lack of computers and network, leaving students unprepared for practical assessments.
She expressed appreciation to UNICEF and the BDR for targeting Bepowase, while welcoming assurances that digital processing will expedite issuance of birth certificates.
For his part, the Gyaasehene of Bepowase, Nana Osae Ababio II, expressed warm appreciation to UNICEF Ghana for its support and for educating the community on the vital importance of registering children at birth.
He pledged to ensure that birth registration is taken seriously within the community and committed to ensuring all parents register their children.
The chief also appealed to the government, the private sector and high-profile individuals to assist the community by addressing its network connectivity challenges, constructing roads, and providing healthcare facilities, school infrastructure and potable water.
By Janet Odei Amponsah