Kuami Eugene joins UNICEF campaign as 26.6% of Ghanaian births remain unregistered

Ghanaian musician Kuami Eugene has teamed up with UNICEF Ghana and the Births and Deaths Registry to encourage parents to register their children’s births, following concerns over the number of children without official birth records.

Data from UNICEF Ghana indicates that 588,972 births were registered by the end of 2025, accounting for 73.4% of the expected births nationwide. This leaves 26.6% of expected births unregistered.

Kuami Eugene joined officials from UNICEF Ghana and the Births and Deaths Registry for a Birth Registration Month outreach programme in Bepoase in the Eastern Region, where they engaged families and community members on the importance of registering children within their first year.

The outreach was also attended by UNICEF Representative in Ghana, Andy Brooks, officials of the Births and Deaths Registry, community leaders, families and frontline birth registration officers.

The Eastern Region saw some progress in birth registration, with coverage increasing from approximately 60% in 2024 to 65% in 2025. Despite the improvement, UNICEF noted that the region continues to rank among those with the lowest birth registration coverage in Ghana.

According to UNICEF, access remains a major challenge for families living in rural and hard-to-reach communities.

Long distances to registration centres, poor road networks, seasonal difficulties in accessing certain communities and inadequate transportation can make the process both challenging and expensive for families.

The organisation also identified limited resources as another obstacle, including shortages of registration personnel, transportation, information and communications technology equipment and community-level registration centres.

UNICEF stressed that registering a child’s birth is more than an administrative requirement, describing it as the child’s first official proof of identity.

A birth certificate helps establish important details such as a child’s name, age, place of birth, nationality and family relationships. It can also support access to healthcare, education, social protection and other essential services.

Children without proof of birth may face difficulties when applying for documents such as passports and national identification cards, potentially creating further barriers to accessing public services.

UNICEF Ghana and the Births and Deaths Registry are therefore calling for registration services to be brought closer to communities and integrated more effectively into health facilities and other community-based services.

The two institutions say improving access, particularly in rural and underserved areas, will be critical to ensuring that more children receive official recognition from birth.

source:pulse