He made this appeal at a press briefing on Births and Death Registration Week celebration and the launching of Universal Birth Registration Campaign.

The minister revealed that the first birth was registered in Ghana on 1st September 1912, and that same day the baby died. The death was therefore also registered that same day. This, he said, explains why 1st September has been declared as Births and Deaths Registration Day.

Mr. Charles Bintim said the celebration of the births and deaths registration week is to educate and create awareness among the Ghanaian populace of the need to register births and deaths in the country.

Referring to the theme, "Birth and Death Registration - A tool for national development planning, the minister said the theme was selected because of the important roles played by births and deaths data in the planning, monitoring and evaluating development programmes.

He added that without knowing all the children born in the country at a particular time, most of them would fall out of the mainstream of planning and thereby not enjoy the benefits of children development policies at the early childhood stage.

Mr. Bintim indicated that the low coverage of births and deaths registration is due to the problems the Births and Deaths Registry faces. These, he mentioned, included inadequate staff, lack of logistics and multiple registration.