The Registrar of Births and Deaths, Samuel Adom Botchway, has assured Ghanaians living in Italy that the challenges surrounding the authentication of Ghanaian birth certificates for use at the Italian Embassy have been resolved.

In a report by adomonline.com on October 13, 2025, Botchway explained that the issue arose following a request by Italian authorities for Ghana to switch from a digital to a manual signature format for the certification of birth certificates.

He said the directive from the Italian government created unnecessary delays and confusion for Ghanaians seeking to validate their documents for travel or residency purposes in Italy.

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“The major problem was coming from Italy because the Italian government said we must change the digital signature to a manual one,” he explained.

Botchway indicated that the situation has now been resolved after he engaged the Italian ambassador to Ghana on the matter.

“But how would I know that a birth certificate is being taken to the Italian Embassy? It became a bit of an issue, but thankfully, I engaged the ambassador, and it has now been resolved,” he stated.

He further assured that any Ghanaian currently in Italy, or planning to travel there, who faces similar authentication challenges can directly contact his office for assistance.

“If any Ghanaian in Italy or going to Italy has this challenge, they can come to me to sign and authenticate their documents, or any of my two deputies can also do it,” he added.

The Registrar emphasised that while Ghana remains open to cooperation with other countries, its legal and administrative procedures must be respected.

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“I don’t really know what the challenge of the Italian government was, but the truth is Ghana has its own laws, and they cannot impose their decisions on us,” he added.

MRA/VPO

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