NRB issues over 4450 birth certificates

The Malawi National Registration Bureau (NRB) says over 4450 birth certificates have been issued since the commencement of the Universal and Compulsory Birth and Death Registration and Issuance of Certificates by the National Registration Bureau (NRB) on August 1 this year.

The bureau has been electronically processing certificates of newly born babies in selected health facilities from three pilot districts of Chitipa, Ntcheu and Blantyre.

NRB Public Relations Officer Norman Fulatira said the bureau plans to roll out electronic registration to the rest of the districts by the end of 2016.

He however, said that late birth registration and death registration was currently taking place in all the 28 district registration offices in the country.

The bureau is carrying out the exercise with support from United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, Plan Malawi, World Vision and Democratic Governance of the European Union.

The exercise is to enable government have a credible calculation of how many people born and die each year and the main causes of their deaths in order to have well functioning health system.

Birth registration also provides the basis for individual legal identity and helps to determine what programs get priority for government funding.