Correct age is important

The Births and Deaths Registry on Monday said the country is now of age for people to stop referring to historical events in determining their ages.

The Registry said for people to know their correct ages has a lot of socio-economic implications that would have to make it sit up and educate the people of the need to register Births and Deaths.

Samuel Pedro Ankrah, Registrar of Births and Deaths told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that Birth and Death Certificates were important determinants for many developmental issues.

People due for retirement would not, as it was being alleged, go on swearing affidavits to change their ages to remain at post. "When one's birth date is registered it helps to determine the population of the country, it helps job determination, to plan for education and it helps in crime detection''.

Ankrah said, "there are people even though they have all the chances to register their birth fail to do so and cannot state the exact date they were born and keep on referring to historical events to identify dates of births".

He said registration of deaths helped to remove dead names from the voters register and to avoid rigging during voting and helped in the administration of the estate of the deceased. Ankrah said data on deaths assist health officials to know the number of people who died through a particular disease such as "cholera" so as to protect the living from being infected. Some people, he said, don't report deaths for the fear that their relatives might fight with them over properties.