Bayelsa State Government and the National Population Commission (NPC) last Tuesday in Yenagoa signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of additional birth registration centres in the state.

NPC’s Federal Commissioner in Bayelsa, Mr. Austen Pabor, said at the ceremony that the integration of birth registration into the state’s health policy would generate accurate population data.

He regretted that the number of existing registration centres was grossly inadequate to capture the rapidly growing population of Bayelsa.

The NPC federal commissioner explained that all health institutions in Bayelsa would serve as vital registration centres for birth and death registrations under the MoU.

“The NPC will train officials of the state’s Ministry of Health on the registration process and provide birth certificates for issuance to new-born babies at health facilities across the state,’’ he said.

Pabor further said the widespread network of health facilities in Bayelsa would be harnessed to capture new births as a build-up to proper enumeration in future census exercise.

He pointed out that birth registration was an evidence-based way of collecting demographic data for arriving at population figures.

Responding, Commissioner for Health in Bayelsa, Dr Michael Awoli, said the signing of the MoU underscored the synergy between the federal and Bayelsa governments.

He said birth registration exercise would be of immense benefit to the state as it would generate reliable data for development planning.

“It will also ensure accurate population figures for the state in future,’’ the commissioner said.

He urged community leaders at the grass roots level to participate in the scheme. “It will ensure that people who do not patronise health facilities at the rural areas are registered,’’ Awoli said.

The state health commissioner also said the exercise would ensure that birth certificates were available.

“This will also help to reduce the dependence on the declaration of age certificates that were sworn to at the courts for official record purposes.

“So, I urge members of the public to preserve the birth certificates as it is a valuable and acceptable document,’’ he added.