A total of 417,148 children under five years in Kagera Region are expected to be registered and issued with birth certificates by the Registration Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA).
RITA Administrator General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ms Angela Anatory told this newspaper that the exercise is expected to be completed before June 30, this year.
“The government has devised a new system where all under five children will be registered at their respective Ward Executive Officers (WEOs) office and at their nearest health facility.
This will ensure that every child gets registration upon birth and issued with a birth certificate,” she stressed.
Elaborating, Ms Anatory said in the past, the process was a bit bureaucratic whereby a parent was issued with a certificate from a health facility and was required to report to the District Commissioner’s office three months after giving birth to get a registration for his/her child.
She explained that to-date, RITA has already completed the registration and issuance of birth certificates in 23 Mainland regions with only three regions still remaining, namely Kagera, Kigoma and Dar es Salaam.
“When we complete the registration exercise in Kagera region, next month we’ll move to Kigoma Region and complete the exercise in Dar es Salaam Region before the end of this year.
The registration and issuance of birth certificates was partly delayed by the Marburg disease and had to be postponed,” she added.
A section of stakeholders including immigration, security and National Identification Agency (NIDA) officials yesterday attended an awareness training session to enable them to properly identify the under five children who deserve to get the registration certificates.
According to Ms Amatory, a birth certificate was a legal document which enables a person to get education from primary to university level, access health services, employment, passports and other essential services.
She appealed to Kagera residents and all Tanzanians to utilise the opportunity to register all eligible under five children at their respective ward offices and nearest health facilities.
Functions of RITA include registration and issuance of birth certificates, registration and issuance of death certificates, registration and issuance of marriage/divorce certificates and issuance of licences of a special place to celebrate marriage (e.g. in a hotel or hospital) and issuance of licences to conduct Marriages.
Incorporation of trustees, probate and administration of deceased’s estate, management of bankrupt and insolvent companies, issuance of certificates of no impediments, deeds of arrangement, wills writing and custody, provision of statistics on key life events, public trustees of minor/ owners assets and issuance of adoption certificates.